Work Text
Harry was incredibly nervous during the drive to his audition site.
-
Two and a half years ago, Harry was driving home from a school dance and got hit head on by a drunk driver. The drunk driver died on impact and Harry was knocked unconscious. Harry’s twin, Edward, who was asleep in the back row, died in the hospital 3 days after the accident due to severe internal damage. After 11 days in a medically induced coma due to swelling on the brain, Harry woke up.
His mother, Anne, was briefed on what to expect moving forward if/when Harry woke up and was allowed to go home. After testing, there was severe brain swelling that would probably impact his speech, movement, and comprehension. Doctors also warned her that Harry would most likely have panic and/or anxiety attacks. During the initial surgery to stabilize internal bleeding Harry’s pancreas was severely damaged and while still in the coma it was determined that he would be type 1 diabetic.
Anne was by his bedside the whole time and jumped up when Harry’s eyes
started fluttering open. He groaned and tried to fully open his eyes but it was too bright.
After waking up and multiple tests it was concluded that Harry suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
After 4 more weeks in the hospital, Harry was moved to a rehab center. He was starting to recover and had gotten back almost all of his ability to speak and the therapists were starting to work on movement, fine motor skills and muscle control.
After 5 months in rehab, Harry was diagnosed with post traumatic epilepsy and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was recommended that he get a service dog for many reasons, not just the epilepsy and PTSD, but also to help him regulate his blood sugar.
Roux, pronounced Roo, was brought in 3 weeks later. Roux had been trained specifically for seizure alert and response but would help in many other aspects of his new way of living. Due to weakness on his left side, Roux was trained to help him balance and support him if Harry tripped. She was also trained for anxiety and PTSD as Harry suffered from both due to the crash and his extensive time in the hospital. Alerting to high and low blood sugars was also very important. Due to Harry’s TBI often he would not realize his blood sugar was out of range so having Roux alert was very helpful.
It took another 3 weeks before Anne and the team of doctors felt comfortable having Harry go home. While in rehab his parent’s house was modified and his bedroom was moved to the main level.
-
Almost exactly a year after he returned home, Harry was on his way to his audition. Roux, a three year old female red standard poodle, was sitting on the floor boards in between his legs. Roux refocused from her half asleep state as Harry’s anxiety increased. Anne noticed that Roux was doing deep pressure therapy (DPT). She had placed her front legs on Harry’s thighs and was leaning her body on them. The weight on his thighs subconsciously made Harry’s start taking deeper breaths.
Anne looked over briefly, “It’s going to be ok Haz, the worst that could happen is you don't make it then we go back home. But if you do make it only through to the live shows your name will be out there and maybe you can make something out of this passion.”
Harry knew his mom was right. As of then, he had not planned for his future since he wasn’t able to graduate high school. Music and singing were to account for his recovery not mentally breaking him. Music helped keep his spirits up while recovering and singing helped him regain his speech quickly. Now he only slurred his speech when sleepy or during an episode.
Knowing that his mom was right did not help the fact that she reminded him that he literally had nothing to lose. Like absolutely nothing.
“Gee , thanks for the reminder mum. It’s this or nothing.”
Anne lightly slapped his leg “That’s not what I meant and you know it. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself.”
Harry sighed “I know.”
“Are you still sure you don't want to take Roux in with you?”
Roux perked up at her name but at the same time Harry shook his head. “I don’t want them to put me through just because I'm disabled”
Anne rubbed his thigh “I know hun, but please at least take your cane so you don’t have to worry about falling”
“I’ll think about it mum”
-
Twenty minutes later Anne parked the car. The plan was for his mom to handle Roux and make it seem like it was her service dog so he was not the focus of the inevitable attention attached with having a dog. Roux would still be close enough to alert to an oncoming seizure as long as it did not come while he was in front of the judges.
Roux jumped out of the car and was perplexed when she was told to heel next to Anne. Harry refused to use his cane and instead decided to hold Anne's arm to make it look like he was helping her but in fact she was helping him. They made their way inside with only a few glances and checked in. Anne pulled one of the workers and explained that she had to stay with Harry until right before he actually sang due to him being underage and extremely anxious. Which wasn’t exactly a lie but not the whole truth. Anne was worried that the added stress would cause a seizure or for his blood sugar to go out of range. The staff member allowed it and they were led to the back waiting room. As Harry sat down Roux came over and nuzzled him sensing his rising anxiety. Harry pushed her away calmly and told her to lay down. As she settled, Roux purposely placed her head on Harry's feet in a grounding manner.
As Anne settled on her phone, Harry looked around. He saw many other family units sitting together waiting for their turn for the singer to perform. Many were huddled together or just anxiously staring off into space.
About an hour later, while Anne was in the restroom with Roux tagging along, a very rambunctious boy came up and started talking to Harry so fast he could not understand. One of the many lasting impacts for the TBI is his processing speed was a bit slow.
“Hi, me . . . . . Niall. . . . .excited for today . . . “ The boy stopped and stared at Harry and said slowly, "Are you ok?”
Harry blinked and refocused. “Sorry, you were talking so fast with your accent I was unable to understand.”
The boy smiled and responded slightly slower. “Ya, get that a lot. My name’s Niall. What’s yours?”
“I’m Harry”
“Nice to meet you Harry. How old are you?”
“17, you?”
“16, where are you planning on going to college then?”
“Oh … I’m taking a gap year and trying to figure some things out.” Harry fumbled through his answer and he was pretty sure Niall did not believe him.
“See you later, I’m going to go back to my mum.”
Harry nodded and smiled as Niall walked away. He was happy Niall walked away before his mom and Roux came back. Harry always, even before his injury, was awkward when his mom was around his friends. Not that he thought of Niall as a friend but that generally uneasiness also was with most people his age, especially now that he did not have Edward to take the stress off of Harry during social situations. Anne came back and everyone settled back down to wait.
Two hours later the numbers called were getting close to Harry’s number. He was dozed off with his head resting on Anne’s shoulder. Two places before Harry’s number Anne shook him a bit to wake him up. Harry slowly woke up.
“Your next sweetheart.”
Harry jolted awake at that news. He was focusing on controlling his breathing when his number was called. He stumbled as he stood and took a second to catch his bearings. He walked up on stage focusing on not falling and nervously fiddled in the middle of the stage.
After all the introductions were done, skillfully avoiding the changes to his life in the last two years, he began singing. As he finished “Is’t it lovely”, he refocused on the judges. After some back and forth of Harry struggling to hear he got through with two yeses and one no.
He slowly walked off stage, due to the high emotions right now Harry would have fallen if he was not careful walking. Meeting up with his mom, a camera was shoved in his face and he panicked. Anne quickly diffused the situation and said they would interview in a minute. As they walked away Roux started alerting. She continuously nudged Harry’s thigh and tried to stand in front of him so he would stop walking and sit down.
Harry was starting to feel the familiar fog of pre seizure. Harry tapped his mom to let her know that the seizure was happening soon. Sometimes Roux could warn them more than thirty minutes in advance to an oncoming seizure but when Harry started to feel the fog settle over his mind he knew it was going to happen soon.
Anne led the group to a quiet back hallway for privacy, unbeknownst to them the camera man that was trying to get an interview followed them and was recording. Harry leaned against the wall and slid down till he was sitting. Harry was unable to hear and his vision was blurring but he knew his mom was trying to comfort him. Roux pushed Harry till he was lying down and got between him and the wall forcing him to lay on his side with her head/neck under his head. The last thing Harry remembered was his mom petting his cheek and Roux’s warmth on his back.
As he came back, Roux was laying on his chest licking his face. After the convulsive part of the seizure Roux always laid on his chest to help ground him as he came back to consciousness. Harry blinked and stared straight at the ceiling. Anne started petting his face again to ground him more and he could start to hear her voice filter through. Anne was not really talking about anything, just talking and telling stories to help Harry focus on something. A few minutes later Harry was able to sit up after Roux deemed it safe. After grand mal seizures it was about a 50% chance that he would be non-verbal for at least a few hours if not the rest of the day. This happened to be one of those situations. Harry’s family often just signed and did not talk post-seizure in hopes of reducing stimuli but also give Harry a sense of privacy.
As he sat there and recovered, Anne signed that she was going to find the interviewer to tell him they were leaving. He shook his head and focused back on Roux and she laid beside him. Anne had to prompt Harry again to figure out what was wrong. After she noticed Harry was starting to zone she asked Roux to “check”. She sniffed and licked Harry and started alerting to his blood sugar. As Anne was getting his glucose testing kit out of Harry’s bag, Roux started booping Harry harder trying to get his attention. As she was testing his blood sugar, Anne narrated everything she was doing. Harry was known to panic while getting his BG checked due to feeling strange and not really understanding what was going on. After getting a result of 50 mg/dl, Anne grabbed a juice box from Harry’s bag and poked the straw in and held it up to his mouth. After drinking and eating some gummy bears, Harry was feeling better and allowed Anne to tell the interviewer they were leaving.
Anne came back looking stressed but Harry didn’t have the energy to question it. As Anne and Roux helped Harry up, Harry had a severe wave of vertigo pass through him. He leaned on the brace rail on Roux’s harness till the episode passed. Anne got his attention and signed asking if he was ok getting to the car with Roux’s help or if she needed to get his wheelchair. Harry was mortified and carefully shook his head no.
After the wave passed, he switched to Roux’s pull strap. Anne started walking and Harry used hand signals to tell Roux to follow. Anne slowly led the group outside. Looking over her shoulder every once and a while to check that Harry was ok and Roux was still following. Getting in the passenger seat of the car Harry settled with his sunglasses and fell asleep. He was always tired after big medical episodes so Anne was not worried about him.
What Anne was worried about was the camera man standing right at the entrance to the hallway Harry had his seizure in. Anne was confused and worried that he filmed the episode. The man denied but Anne had one of those motherly gut feelings that the situation did not sit well with her. People also stared as they walked out. Harry was too out of it to notice but Anne had a creeping feeling go down her spine. On the car ride home she decided to not tell Harry as he was recovering from a medical episode and the stress of her worries would potentially make it worse. She would cross that bridge if anything happened.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Waking up the next morning Harry was confused on how he got in his bed. Roux was asleep in her dog bed in the corner of the room and the sun was barely coming through the blinds. Harry did a full body check and noticed that he was feeling the after effects of a seizure, stiff muscles and sensitivity to sensory input. Roux slowly woke up after hearing Harry stir in bed. He sat up and saw a note on his night stand.
Harry
I have gone to work today and will be home at 5pm and will make dinner.
Recount of yesterday:
You auditioned for the x-factor and got through to the next round. <3
You had a seizure afterwards most likely due to the strong emotions/stress.
After seizure you were non-verbal and were struggling with vertigo. You also went low.
We came home and you fell asleep for the night.
Remember to take your meds this morning.
Roux has already been fed and let out.
Love, Mom xoxo
Harry sighed. He was thankful for his mom’s reminders about what happened. The day after a seizure he often did not remember parts of the day before so when his mom had to go to work she would leave a note.
Harry pulled back the covers and threw his legs off the side of the bed. After sitting there and taking note of how sore and in pain he was he asked Roux for help. He felt bad but she fetched her mobility harness and Harry put it on. He was thankful that they decided on easy release latches because his hands were not responding well. Before he stood up he took his morning meds that were sitting on his night stand. He decided that since his hands were not cooperating he would have to rely on his Dexcom for BG and Roux to alert if something was really wrong. Harry wore a Dexcom 24/7 but they found that it was not incredibly accurate so he tested before every meal and whenever Roux alerted. Honestly Harry was over wearing it all the time and was trying to convince his mom and Dr.'s that since it did not work why should he have to be careful about knocking it off all the time.
Asking Roux to stand in front of him to brace, he put one hand on her and one on his night stand and heaved himself up. He slowly made his way over to his wheelchair. Sitting down he took out his phone and rested for a few minutes before he attempted to get dressed.
He rolled over to his dresser and got his clothes out. He then took everything and placed it on his bed. Roux followed the chair around waiting for him to be ready to get up. Leaving the chair outside the bathroom, Harry used Roux to walk to the toilet. After he did his business he walked slowly back to his bed to sit down and change.
After getting changed, Harry was ready for a nap. Sadly it was only 10 in the morning so not only would the day be wasted away he also needed to eat because he took his meds on an empty stomach. Using the brace bar on Roux’s harness and his nightstand, Harry once again got up and settled in his wheelchair, then started heading towards the kitchen to find food. After struggling to make peanut butter toast with bananas he settled on the couch with his laptop, ready to relax until lunch.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two weeks later, Harry was once again loaded up in the car ready for round two of auditions. This time he was much calmer, partially due to the fact that he knew what to expect but also he slept like shit last night and was too tired to really think about what could possibly go wrong. Anne on the other hand was hypervigilant about the cameras due to the possibility that Harry was filmed having a seizure last time.
When they arrived, Harry was feeling too poorly to care who saw him with Roux as he needed all the help he could get that day. Anne got out of the car after parking in a disabled spot and walked around to help Roux and Harry get out of the car. After getting Roux out and letting her use the bathroom, Anne put her mobility harness on with her cape. The cape was one of Harry’s favorite things. Not only was it gorgeous it was a safety measure in case he had a medical episode without anyone he knew around. The cape was blue with gold trim. Blue was his favorite color and was also the TBI ribbon color. The cape stated that Roux was a medical and seizure alert dog, to not distract Roux and not to separate her from Harry. Once Roux was in her gear, Anne helped Harry out of the car and set him up with Roux. She led the group into the check in desk. Harry was just following blindly with too little energy to check himself in. After settling down to wait his turn, Harry drifted between sleep and dissociation.
Roux startled Anne and Harry when she got in his lap and started barking. Anne jumped into action and moved Harry to the floor. She knew Roux only barked when a severe seizure was very close and Harry was not in a safe area. Once Harry was on the floor Roux maneuvered his body and got into position for the seizure to start. Anne helped by moving nearby chairs and removed Roux’s brace handle to allow her to lay better. People started crowding around but neither Roux or Anne paid any attention to them. Anne got her phone out to start timing and got Harry’s rescue meds at the ready if he seized for more than 5 minutes. The last time Roux barked and alerted for a severe seizure Harry had to be hospitalized due to cluster seizures. After that he had been prescribed a suppository medication in case he had another seizure that went past the 5 minute mark to hopefully stop a cluster from starting.
By this point Harry was fully unresponsive. The convulsive part of the seizure had not started yet but he was not able to move at all. He unfortunately could hear everything going on and was getting more stressed due to the amount of people he could hear crowding around him. Roux moved her head under his right as his eyes rolled to the back of his head and the convulsions started. Anne leaned back on her haunches to wait, she had done everything now she just needed to time the episode and wait.
As Harry was seizing Anne focused back on her surroundings. She was not surprised to see a circle of people around her. She asked people to step away and give her and her son space. Thankfully most took the hint and gave them privacy. As people moved away the same camera man as last audition was seen filming the whole thing. The only thing keeping that cameraman alive was the fact that she would not leave Harry alone during a seizure. X-factor’s medical staff arrived and she was too distracted to worry about the camera now.
After four and a half minutes Harry’s convulsions stopped and he went limp. Roux was trying to move onto his chest to ground him as he woke up but the paramedics started telling Roux to leave and grabbing her collar to try to pull her away. Anne stepped up and went full momma bear.
“Leave the dog alone. She is a service dog trained to help with his medical issues. Step away from my son. He is ok now and you will just send him into a panic attack. “ She said deathly calm.
As the paramedics were distracted glaring at Anne, Roux pushed her way onto Harry’s chest and started licking his face. Once Roux was able to task both Anne and her calmed down. Anne asked the paramedics to leave them alone and said she would yell if they were needed. Due to all the commotion, one of the producers of X-factor came over and asked Anne if there was anything he could do to help. Just as Anne started to talk about the camera man Roux started whining as a way to let Anne know that Harry was waking up.
Anne stopped talking and refocused on Harry and started talking to him. Due to the severity of the seizure and the unfamiliar location, Anne knew Harry was going to have a rough time waking back up and grounding himself so as to not have a panic attack.
As Harry woke up he started panicking. He could not open his eyes and it sounded like he was underwater. He also vaguely remembered people surrounding him as he went unconscious. All his muscles were tired and it felt like his arms were 100 lbs each. He focused on a dog licking his face before he realized it was Roux. His breathing was a bit fast as he was having trouble grounding himself. Suddenly he felt someone holding his hand, it was squeezed three times. He calmed down a bit knowing someone was there. He first got his hearing back. Anne was telling him a story about eating cheese fish??!?! WTF! He continued listening and figured out she was talking about goldfish. Why the hell was his mom talking about goldfish? His eyes fluttered open and focused on the wet nose that was inches from his face. Now that he was more aware Roux moved to lay across his stomach.
As he started having the ability to move his arms, he started playing with one of Roux’s ears. He listened around him and heard a vaguely familiar accent nearby.
Anne got Harry’s attention again and asked if he could recover to audition or if they should just go home.
STAY
. Anne understood but was worried that Harry did not give a verbal answer. The paramedics started bothering him again. Harry was not with it enough to answer the multitude of questions being thrown at him. Then again, he probably would not be able to answer them even if he was having a totally average day due to the sheer speed and magnitude that questions were being asked.
please, stop, slow
“Please back off, you are overwhelming him. He will recover slowly regardless but if you stress him more it will take longer”
Once they gave him space, the producer walked over and crouched down next to Anne.
“Hey, I know this is a bad time but his audition slot is soon. Is he going to recover fast enough to perform or should I try to move it back a few hours.”
Anne leaned over Harry. “You sure you want to try and sing later or just go home.”
Harry shook his head slowly and responded
stay here, 2-ish hrs.
Anne shook her head and smiled. “He said he should be good in 2 hours if you can push it back that far.”
“I should be able to but he will be in the middle of the girls auditions but I will explain the situation a bit to the judges and they should be fine.”
“Thank you”
The producer walked away with the camera man and Anne was left alone with Harry and Roux.
—-
An hour later, the judges were having lunch when the producer walked in and pulled up a video on the screen. After watching the seizure and Roux tasking, Simon was certain that they could use the sad story to win ratings.
—
After fully coming to, Anne convinced Harry to use his wheelchair and bring Roux on stage with him.
Rolling onto stage was a whole different level of scary. Having to explain why he had a dog and was in a wheelchair was going to be hard but he had decided to just say he was in an accident 3 years ago and had a TBI and every day was different but today it was easier to use his wheelchair.
That was the plan at least. Shit hit the fan almost immediately. After centering himself on stage and getting Roux to settle, he noticed Simon was wearing a smug grin. Harry was instantly put on edge.
“Who is this furry friend here?”
“This is my service dog …”
“Why don’t we show everyone what services she provides.”
Harry frowned, this was not an uncommon question but he was startled by it being asked on a stage in front of many people. “No, that's not – ” He was cut off mid sentence by the screen changing behind him to a video of his seizure after his first audition and then again of his seizure a few hours ago. Harry was slack jawed. How could one, someone film him in the middle of having a seizure, and two, make an edit of it and show it to a crowd without his permission.
Annoyed, Harry sat there with his arms crossed over his chest and his legs crossed on his lap. He looked over at Anne and she was fully panicking and trying to decide if she needed to come rescue him. Harry signed,
No, stay, I’m good
.
After the video concluded, Simon took up his badgering. “I see you've crossed your legs there, so you don’t really need a wheelchair, you're just doing it for attention.”
Harry rolled his eyes and calmly replied “In case you forgot I walked out here last time. Also sorry to disappoint, but I’m not doing this for attention but out of necessity so that is not my motive to be using this here. Since you and your people decided to film me in the middle of not one but two separate medical episodes, you think you have the right to question me but you don’t. I am going to give the same speech I had prepared before I came out here. I was in an accident 3 years ago and was left with lasting effects. One of those being seizures, so yes I do use a wheelchair after my more severe seizures and yes I have a service dog that helps me live my day to day life. Any other questions you can shove up your ass. Capish?” Everyone stared at him in shock. “I am now ready to sing”
Harry glared at the sound tech as he scrambled to put the music on. “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” started playing and Harry sang his best. It was a bit shaky due to the high emotions flowing through him but he was overall happy with his performance.
After he finished singing he raised his eyes at the judges as if daring them to comment on anything other than his singing.
Nicole spoke up first “I 100% understand your need for privacy but I am wondering how singing professionally would be possible with your medical issues.” at Harry’s glare she backtracked a bit “I’m not trying to be rude but you do understand that you will have to try 10x harder than everyone else in the music industry, right?”
Harry sighed “I do understand that I will have to try harder but I don't think my medical issues should be the deciding factor. Do any of you have comments about my actual singing because anything else accommodation wise we will discuss in private?”
After a few seconds of silence, Harry unlocked his wheelchair and Roux stood and followed him off stage. Once off stage Harry stopped and closed his eyes, he needed a few seconds to reground himself. At this point Harry was used to standing up for himself but he had never done it in front of that many people so he was a bit shaken up. The post performance interviewer stood a bit to the side averting his gaze from Harry. Harry realized that he must have been a part of the making of that video.
Anne walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. She knew how hard that was but was very proud of him at the same time. Harry was ready to leave and just sleep til the next day, sadly they had to stay to get the results. Harry looked at Anne and signed
alone
. She understood immediately and started walking away to find a quieter area. Early on in his recovery Anne and Harry had many heated arguments about him using his wheelchair. After many fights and tears they came to figure out that Harry hated being pushed in his chair unless he was in immediate danger or asked for help. Since Harry was responding, Anne just walked away knowing that Harry would follow.
Anne worked to find a quiet room this time not a hallway where a camera could be hiding. After settling Harry she walked away to find a producer to cuss out. She generally was a very kind and calm person when advocating for Harry but the events that just happened pushed her over the edge and she was going full mama bear.
Harry slid out of his wheelchair onto the ground. Roux climbed onto his lap and snuggled into him. As the adrenaline wore off he started to notice how thirsty he was. He pricked his finger and tested his BG. He was surprised that it was only 235 as he was expecting it to be well over 300 with how poorly he was feeling. Nonetheless, he asked Roux to check. After she sniffed and just gave two soft boops he assumed his blood sugar was stabilizing and was not going to rise much higher. Due to the nature of his injury his blood sugar often sat higher than most other diabetics, but Roux was always able to tell if his number was going to drastically change within the next few minutes. Since she was not worried he gave himself a shot of two units of insulin. After cleaning up his supplies and logging the shot in his app he settled down to relax.
The app he used tracked his BG before the shot, how much he gave and automatically alerted in 30 minutes to recheck his blood sugar. For lows it was similar, logged current BG, what he corrected with, and 15 minute reminders to check BG until it was in range. If Harry logged a number drastically out of range or if he missed a check of his blood sugar it would alert his emergency contacts. This was all set up after multiple episodes of Harry forgetting to recheck his sugar or how much insulin he gave.
After dosing in and out for a few hours with Anne coming in and out of the room, he was called back on stage to see if he made it further. Harry loaded everything back into his backpack and hung it on the back of his wheelchair. He got up off the floor with the help of Roux and settled in his wheelchair. As he was waiting in a line with the other solo males backstage waiting for their cue to walk on Roux booped his thigh. Harry instantly took account of how he was feeling. Beside the expected nerves, his hands were shaking and he was starting a headache. Looking back at Roux the fact that she was very attentive and staring into his sole told him that this could be bad. He grabbed his BG kit and a juice box out of his bag and started drinking the juice as he was checking his sugar. Harry knew that he should wait for the number first before correcting but he was kinda on a time crunch and was positive this was a low BG due to the insulin earlier and then sleeping through lunch. As he poked his finger, someone came and knelt beside his wheelchair on the opposite side that Roux was sitting on. Harry looked up and saw it was Niall.
“Hey, one sec.”
“No it's fine I was wondering if you needed help. I heard what they did and wanted to check on you.”
“Thanks, I’m pretty sure my blood sugar is dropping so I’m trying to see how low it is and then raise it.” With his hands shaking Harry was struggling to keep everything balanced on his lap. Niall reached out and helped to steady his meter bag. Harry was finally able to prick his finger. The results were 38. Harry jumped into action and sucked back the rest of his juice box and turned to Niall. “Can you grab a granola bar and gummies from my backpack?”
“Yep!” Niall jumped up to search his backpack. Others were starting to look but Harry was too focused on fixing his sugar to worry about them. While Niall was digging around, Harry pulled his glucagon out of Roux’s vest and set it on his lap.
Niall came back around and handed him the snacks. “Sorry I did not know what flavor you wanted. Wait a second, I don’t think that really matters right now”
Harry looked up smiling “Can you open this, my hands are shaking too much?” Harry handed back the Granola bar and Niall opened it.
Harry inhaled it and started to put the rest of his glucose stuff in his under wheelchair pouch so it was more accessible to him. The line was starting to move and they would be going on stage soon. He shyly looked up at Niall and whispered “Could you just stay by me while we are out there?”
“No problem!”
After rolling onto stage and getting everyone in positions the cameras started rolling. Harry was nervous for a few reasons, first the actual contest and if he would make it to the next round and the fact that Roux was still alert and looking worried. As they started listing everyone that got through it was becoming more apparent that Harry did not make it. He was devastated, thinking back to the conversation with his mom before the first interview about how he had nothing to lose and nearly started crying. After everyone was called and they announced that everyone else did not make it he looked over to Niall. They both were misty eyed.
Rolling off stage Niall stayed near Roux and Harry. Once in a quieter area both boys started coming to terms with the decision. After they both collected themselves, Harry spoke up “Hey, I know this did not go to plan for either of us but maybe we could keep in contact?”
Niall grinned “Ya that sounds good!”
As Harry got his phone out to exchange numbers as Roux started sniffing him and then progressed to booping. Harry handed his phone to Niall with a new contact page pulled up “Here can you put your info in, I need to check by sugars again.”
As Niall started typing, Harry pulled his kit out of his wheelchair bag and started the process of checking his blood sugar. After testing he found that it was 70 which was a lot better than before but since Roux was worried he was concerned it was dropping again. He ate the gummy bears and looked back up at Niall.
“Hey, I don’t mean to pry or anything so just tell me to shut up if needed but what is that you just did?” Harry trusted him enough to answer. “My pancreas was injured 3 years ago after I was in an accident so I’m now insulin dependent and have type 1 diabetes. That is also one of the reasons I have Roux.” He looked at Roux fondly and started petting her ears.
“Interesting, I put my number in your phone and texted myself so I now have your number too.”
“Sounds good, I should probably find my —'' Harry was interrupted by the overhead intercom asking all the solo boys to group up on stage right. Slowly everyone that had scattered grouped back together and stood there looking around and whispering, confused on why they were called back.
Soon a producer walked over. “If I read your name please step to the left, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Niall Horan '' The boys all stepped aside. Niall and Harry look at each other incredibly nervous. This was uncharted territory as neither of them knew what to expect.
Harry looked at the other boys standing with him. The black haired boy was clearly trying to hide the fact that he was nervous and looked a bit emo. The fluffy one was bouncing around and seemed unable to stand still, fiddling with his fingers and swaying from side to side. The taller one was looking Harry up and down with clear disgust. Harry instantly was uneasy around him.
As they were all ushered back on stage, the tall one tried to pet Roux. Niall seamlessly stepped between the boy and Roux. Come to think of it, Niall had made no comments or tried to interact with Roux at all, and for that Harry was very thankful. After an eye roll from the boy trying to pet her, Harry moved on and found his spot on stage and lined up with the other boys. Since this shot was the boys lined up in a straight line Harry had Roux settle behind his chair so she would be out of the way.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
By the time the boys were leaving the stage together, they were all suffering from whiplash from the quick change of emotions. Producers ushered them into a side room to confirm that they all wanted to try this together. The tall one, who Harry now knew was Liam, was still eyeing Harry. They all quickly sat in a circle on the ground and for the most part waited patiently for Harry to make it to the ground. He grabbed his BG stuff from under his wheelchair and his backpack from the back before pushing his wheelchair away. He normally would never let his wheelchair out of arm's reach when he was in need of using it but he trusted that Niall would get it if needed. Roux settled next to him with her head on his lap.
Liam instantly took charge of the conversation.
“So I think we should go around and say our names, our age, and one interesting thing about us. I’ll go first, I’m Liam, I'm almost 18 and this is my second time on this show. I was here two years ago and got all the way to Simon’s house.” He looked kinda smug and then turned to the fluffy bloke.
“Oi, I’m Louis, I’m 18 and I love to play football.” Harry was caught off guard by the sheer amount of energy coming off of him. Louis was nearly bouncing in place and talked with his hands. Roux even looked up and appeared offended that he disrupted her nap.
All eyes turned “Yo, I’m Zayn, I’m 17 and I love art whether that be music or drawing or tattoos I love it all.” Harry got good vibes off him and was settled.
Niall jumped to answer before anyone had even moved on from Zayn. “Me name’s Niall and I’m Irish. Oh! I’m 16 years old.”
All eyes turned to Harry. “Hey, I’m Harry and I’m 17 years old. Oh, this is Roux.”
Liam jumped at the opening to get more information. “Ya I wanted to talk about that, how is this going to work with a dog and you in a wheelchair. I saw your seizure earlier and I don’t think that is something we should have to deal with.”
Niall jumped in right away. “Look at it this way, we already have a built-in mascot.” Harry smiled slightly at Niall.
He should have expected that this would come up. Now Harry was worried that he would be kicked from the band before there was any band to be really kicked from. Roux climbed into his lap, sensing rising anxiety.
“Why do you have her anyway, and what's with the chair you were walking fine the first day?”
Everyone but Harry looked at Liam incredulously.
“Well I guess you should know a bit. I was in a car crash 3 years ago and suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as having my pancreas severely injured due to internal damage. I have what is called post traumatic epilepsy which means that due to my brain injury I now have seizures. They are not photosensitive and most of them don’t have a trigger. Due to my pancreas being injured I now also have type 1 diabetes. Roux here alerts my blood sugar and warns me when a seizure is coming. As you all have probably seen the video by now you know what she does during a seizure. She also helps me walk most days due to muscle weakness. As for my wheelchair, I don’t use it very often but I had a bad seizure earlier that increased my muscle weakness making it extremely difficult if not impossible to walk on my own right now.” Harry paused and looked around at all the boys. “Any respectful questions?” He glared at Liam while saying that last sentence.
Everyone was quiet for a few minutes trying to comprehend all the medical jargon.
“I don’t see an issue with it as long as Harry lets us know what to do and one of the adults that is assigned to us from the show knows what to do.” Louis speaks up. Niall nods along while Zayn seems indifferent, which sounds like it would cause more stress but with the doubtful look on Liam’s face Harry is perfectly happy with Zayn’s reaction.
“As long as it is not a distraction, and I don’t have to deal with it, we will be fine.”
Harry decided to drop the topic for now but he would really have to have a heart to heart with Liam about boundaries and ableism.
Niall started bouncing and raised his hand. Everyone chuckled as he asked. “What are the rules with Roux? Like can we play with her when we are in a room like this … oh and what do her alerts look like and for what … like you said seizure and blood sugar but are those different?”
Harry smiled and took a moment to comprehend everything that just came spilling out of Niall’s mouth. “Playing with Roux is ok in private if you ask and I am feeling ok. If I’ve been having a rough day then I would like it if she is focused to help and alert to any upcoming events. Generally when she has her brace handle on she is working.” Niall raised his hand again. “Ni were not in school you can just ask, if I don't want to answer then I won’t.”
Niall ducked his head and nodded. “What is a brace handle?”
Harry woke up Roux a bit and got her to lay with her belly on the ground so he could show her harness. “This is her brace handle, it helps me balance and walk when I’m having a good day. Even before my accident I was always clumsy so now with my issues I use this handle to help me walk most days. It comes off like this.” Harry leaned over to unclip the brace handle. “I take this off when she is resting but still in a public area. I want her to still have the cape that says service dog but she is more comfortable and can sleep easier. You may have also noticed my mom took it off when I had that seizure earlier. It is easier for her to task and protect me during a seizure without this hindering her movement. Generally ask if you can hang with her but when we are truly in public just ignore her please.” Niall and Louis looked like they were taking mental notes. Zayn was following along but still remained quiet.
“What about her alerts? I saw she hit you with her nose earlier.”
“Ya so what you saw earlier, Niall, was a blood sugar alert because I was going low. She generally boops me when my blood sugar is out of range and depending on her level of worry I can tell how bad it is. When I am going to have a seizure she does what is called intelligent disobedience. She will refuse to follow my directions and basically herds me to a safer area and forces me to sit down. She can give me up to 30 minutes warning but I will start to feel bad about 2 minutes before the episode. As for now, if she barks at me, get me on the ground but then find an adult, barking means a really bad seizure is coming fast. I don’t expect you all to feel comfortable helping with anything so if you get worried or if I ask just please find an adult.”
“That’s no problem, I kinda know a bit what to do since my mom is a nurse. Like I know how to use the glucose monitor but I wouldn’t know how to figure out correct insulin doses. Oh, I also know basic seizure stuff but I’ve never done it with a service dog so I don’t want to get in her way.” Louis spoke up. Harry kinda stared at him slack jawed that he is willing to learn and help.
“The insulin thing I can generally take care of because Roux will alert. The only thing is if my sugar gets below 70 I need to raise it with juice or gummy bears and then follow up with a carb. I will always have snacks in my backpack or in Roux’s harness. For seizures, remove anything around that I could hit myself with, chairs, tables, stuff like that. Remove her brace handle and you may have to help her roll me onto my side but after that please don’t touch me. You can hurt me more by doing that. Start timing when the convulsions start. If there is more than one of you there while someone is making sure I’m safe I would like it if someone else got an adult. If convulsions last more than 5 minutes I need a special medication that I don’t feel comfortable explaining right now.” Harry then looks Louis right in the eyes. “Not to say I don’t trust but I would feel more comfortable if there was an adult there for at least the first few times.”
“No that makes sense”
Liam looked over the conversation and jumped back in with an eye roll. “Now that we got Harry’s full medical history do we think this is going to work.”
Everyone nodded along and Zayn spoke up for the first time. “Liam, you need to drop it. Clearly he is fine and able to stand up for himself but he should not have to worry about doing that with his own band mates. We’ll figure this out together but I don’t think you should be focused on others when you have failed the comp. twice already so this is kinda your last chance.” Everyone kinda stared at Zayn, shocked that he spoke up and then secondarily shocked that he called Liam out on his bullshit. Liam scoffed and looked down slightly embarrassed.
The producer walked back in and asked if they wanted to move forward as a band. They all nodded and listened to the next steps. They would have a two week break before they had to go to Simon’s house for judges house and then if they moved on they would be moved into x-factor housing for live shows. The boys talked amongst each other and came to the decision to meet at Harry’s step-dads house since he had a bungalow on his property with a pool. Harry had a feeling that the lack of immediate adult supervision and a pool were the two selling points of this idea. As the boys start chatting around him about what to bring, Harry pulled his BG kit out to recheck his sugar. He was not worried because Roux was half asleep again but he just liked to check.
As his monitor was loading, he thought back on how happy he was to be using the bungalow. First, it was fully accessible due to the fact that Harry was going to move in there within the next year and it was also close to his step-father, Robin. It made him feel more secure knowing that there would be an adult that knew what to do because even if Harry did not want to admit it, within the span of two weeks he would probably have quite a few medical episodes.
When his test beeped and showed 120 Harry was very happy and started smiling to himself. Louis popped up and sat next to him. “Hey, what's your blood sugar?”
“120”
“Good, do you generally have me issues after big seizures?”
Harry nodded “Ya my blood sugar is normally on the higher end everyday but after a seizure I have to keep correcting it since it almost always goes low.”
“Just let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks, it means a lot that you care. I pretty much lost everyone in my life after the crash beside my parents.” Harry was not ready to talk about losing Edward or the fact that Gemma still blamed him for Edward’s death.
“No problem, I don’t see a problem with your medical issues, and besides it is not like you can control it.”
Harry leans over to whisper. “Thanks, I’m a bit worried that Liam is going to make this a bigger issue than it needs to be.” Louis just smiled reassuringly.
One week later Harry showed up at the bungalow. He arrived first thing in the morning to get all his medical stuff and Roux’s things set up before everyone else arrived. One of the main things he had to do was set up his wireless alert. Roux would press a button when he started a seizure and it would send an emergency text alert to the adults on his list. He updated the list to include his step-father and reacquainted Roux with the location of the button. He did not use this setup when he was out in public with someone trusted nearby because if Roux got worried she would start barking but this system was more so for when Robin was in the main house and Harry started having a seizure. He also set up her food and water bowls and then put his insulin vials in the fridge. He then hung up a sheet on the fridge with basic insulin doses because Louis sounded interested in learning.
Niall was the first to arrive. Roux greeted him at the door bouncing around like a puppy. “Gosh, I’m sorry she has like zero manners off harness.” Harry said, chuckling and half heartedly trying to catch Roux.
Niall was not making it easier as he was egging her on and running around too. “No, this is great. I just sat on a plane for hours. It feels great to run around.” Harry just chuckled and shook his head.
Louis was second. This was planned since he wanted to help Harry out a bit with his medical stuff so he arrived a bit early to get the low down. As Louis walked up from the main house he chucked at Niall rolling around in the grass with Roux trying to pounce on him. “Damn, if I didn't know any better I’d say you’ve been knocked down to second tier on her favorite people list.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it.”
The boys hugged and Harry helped Louis get his bags inside, rolling his eyes at the fact that Niall’s bags had just been abandoned in the yard. “So we only have 3 bedrooms so we will need to double up. I personally don’t really care but I don’t want to room with Liam. I’m kinda worried that he will just stare and laugh if I have a medical issue overnight.”
As Louis looked around and thought it through, it would be safest if he stayed with Harry due to his minimal but still there medical knowledge. “I totally get that, I can stay with you if that works.”
Harry sighed. “Thanks. Here’s our room. I've kinda set up already on the left hand side. Also, don’t touch this button unless you would like Robin running down here like a chicken with his head cut off.” At Louis’ funny look. “Roux presses it when I’m having a seizure and it blows up his phone so he will come and help. Oh I guess another thing then is don’t close this door unless both Roux and I are in here.”
“What happens if we are outside?”
“Roux also has a button on her collar, but she is unable to press that herself so either one of you or I would have to so Robin can come help.”
“Perfect! What about your blood sugar?”
Harry happily bounced to the night stand, excited that Louis remembered. “I always have snacks in my nightstand and a few different go bags throughout the house that Roux can go get if you tell her. The command is ‘Roux get medicine’. I mostly rely on Roux because my Dexcom is really inaccurate so I don’t wear it very often anymore. I always test my sugar before meals and before I go to bed but overnight Roux might wind up waking you up too if my sugar is weird. She wakes me up very roughly overnight by jumping on me. It’s quite alarming to be awoken by 90 lbs. of pure fluff.”
Louis starts chuckling. “Where do you normally keep your monitor?”
“It stays in the kitchen during the day and on my night stand overnight, but if I’m struggling to keep my sugars in range I keep it on me or in Roux’s vest. Even though we aren’t in public, Roux will wear her vest if I'm struggling just so I have all my things with me and she is more in work mode and not getting covered in grass.” At the end of the sentence Harry looked out the window to see Niall and Roux laying in the grass and panting together. “Niall didn't even realize you're here.” Harry stated smirking.
“I see you're walking pretty well today.”
“Ya, I haven’t had a seizure in a few days so I am truly back at baseline with my balance which means that it just takes a bit of brain power but I’m self sufficient right now. Oh, that reminds me.” Harry started walking towards the kitchen with Louis following. “I made a list of insulin doses and a seizure checklist for reference. Generally with my insulin doses I’m ok but if I’m out of it and start trying to dose something that is not even remotely accurate you can step in. For low blood sugars my go to is juice but if I'm really low and out of it use one of my gel packs or if I am not responding use the glucagon.” Harry looked up at Louis to make sure he was following along. To Harry low blood sugars are scarier than seizures. With seizures once Roux has him on his side there is not much anyone can do but the lows Roux can only tell him but he has to raise his own blood sugar which FYI is hard to do when your blood sugar is low. “Oh, another thing alway open my low snacks for me. My hands are weak as is but when they are shaking due to a low I’m unable to open them. Also, straws, if you just bring me a glass of juice I will look at you like you're crazy cause my brain can’t compute how to get my hands to work. Juice boxes or glasses of juice with straws only.” Louis shot him a thumbs up.
Roux started barking outside, therefore Harry and Louis looked out the window and saw Zayn and Liam pull up. Their trains were arriving so close together they just shared a ride. Roux was bounding around the new boys trying to get their attention. Liam scowled while Zayn had a similar response to Niall. His bags hit the floor and Roux had a new best friend. Louis chuckled, “Looks like you're now number three.” Harry threw a mock glare over his shoulder and then broke down and smiled.
“Damn, my bestie got taken.” Niall said as he walked over to the boys.
Harry started explaining the plan in true HGTV style. “Welcome to the Twist Bungalow. Inside you will find 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths and a full kitchen. Follow me this way.” Harry turned around and started walking in the front door as the boys snicker. “Here is the front entryway. Plenty of space for jackets and shoes even though we are going to be dying of heat stroke and running around barefoot most of the time.” Harry led them further. “Here is the living room. Plenty of couches and chairs.” He pulled up to a certain chair near the back wall. “This is Roux’s chair so if you sit here you are asking for snuggles and are not allowed to say no.” Going off the look in Niall’s eyes, Harry moved on quickly before Niall could derail the tour and sit down. “Down there is the kitchen but follow me to the bedrooms. This first one here has a twin size bed for the single room. It also is the only bedroom without an attached bathroom so … moving on, here is the second bedroom with a queen size bed I think. Two of you will have to share this room. Down here is mine and Louis’ room. Please leave this door open at all times unless we are going to sleep.” He led the tour into his bedroom and started pointing different things out. “Roux always needs access to this button. It alerts my step-father to a seizure. here” Harry called for Roux. “You will also see she has one on her collar that one of you can press if I have a seizure while outside or Roux deems it too dangerous to leave me to press the button. As of right now it just alerts Robin but in the future it will be connected to different people’s phones. When we move into the x-factor house it will connect to the on-call medic and the producer assigned to us and any of your guys’ phones too.” They all nodded along. “Oh, I forgot to tell you this earlier Lou but if Robin is not home when Roux alerts he will call the house phone that is in the kitchen to talk you guys through what to do.” Harry looked off into space trying to think of what else he needed to tell them.
After a few minutes, he came back to himself and realized they were all staring at him and Roux was very interested in sniffing him. Louis stepped up and took charge. “Why don’t you guys start fighting over rooms and I’ll call if I need you.” They all nodded and left, sensing that there was about to be a medical episode. “Harry can you sit on the bed for me…wait never mind sit on the floor. Good job, I’m going to check your blood sugar because I can tell you don’t feel good but I’m not sure what’s up yet.” Roux started barking and went for her button. “Fuck” Louis muttered under his breath. Louis instantly took over the situation. “NIALL, GET IN HERE!” After a few seconds Niall slid in on his socks. “Go find his glucose meter in the kitchen. Oh, bring the house phone with you.” Louis worked with Roux to get Harry on the ground and away from the wall. They rolled him on his side and Louis took out his phone to start timing when needed. Niall came back talking on the phone.
“Here’s his kit and Robin is on the phone.”
“Thanks, put it on speaker.” Louis started going straight for an update. “He zoned out and when he came back we thought it was his blood sugar. Sat him down then Roux fully alerted to a seizure. He is on his side in recovery with nothing around, Roux is with him. Right now he is non-responsive but not convulsive yet. I’m checking his sugar now.”
“Wow, damn he wasn’t lying when he said you knew what you were doing.” Louis gave a humorless chuckle. “Did Roux take him to the ground or start barking?”
“She barked, pressed her button and then we both got Harry laying down.”
“Ok, because she barked, have someone else get his backpack and find his rescue medication. If he convulses for more than 5 minutes then you will have to give him that. I will be home in 20 minutes but it sounds like you will have to do most of the work.” Niall walked out of the room to find the backpack.
Louis finished his BS check. “Ok, his sugar is 58.”
“Is he with it at all or fully-unconscious?”
“Fully out”
“Ok check every 5 minutes until the convulsions start and then right after —”
Louis interrupted Robin “He is starting to convulse. I have started the timer.”
“Ok forget about his blood sugar until this ends, try to keep him on his side but don’t restrain him.” Everyone was silent as they watched Harry’s hands contract and bend in unnatural ways. Niall walked back in with the backpack. A few seconds later the full seizure started and both Niall and Louis were frozen as they watched their new found friend contort in ways the human body was not supposed to. They were also both alarmed by how vocal Harry was during the episode and were worried something was wrong.
Louis snapped out of staring at Harry and spoke up. “What is the medication I’m looking for in the backpack?”
“There should be a red medical pouch. There are pills and gloves. They are suppositories so they go in his bum. I know it is weird but if the seizure does not stop it can and will most likely cause brain damage.”
“That’s fine. What else should I be doing during the seizure?”
“Just watch the timer and wait it out.”
“We are at 3 minutes.” Silence filtered through the call as the boys waited for Harry to come out of the seizure or get to the point of where Louis would have to give the meds.
Zayn popped his head into the room. “Anything I can get you all?”
“Robin, is there anything we should have here for when Harry wakes up?” Louis asked.
“Get a bottle or glass of juice with a straw and get a snack as his sugar will most likely drop.” Zayn nodded as he left the room.
“The convulsions are stopping!” Louis announced to Robin
“Good now allow Roux to do her job and just wait.” As if on cue Roux wiggled her way out from under Harry’s head and laid on his chest. Zayn walked back in with supplies in hand. “Ok Roux is licking him, do we just need to wait or should I be checking his BS again?”
“Ya, check his sugar and just keep talking about anything. He needs something to grasp onto to help him come back to earth.” As Louis started checking Harry’s BS, he told a story about his home life with his many siblings. A few minutes later Harry started groaning as he became more responsive. “Ok, boys keep talking to him and checking his BS, it goes low and is hard to get up after an episode. I’ll be there in a little more than 10 minutes but call me back if you need anything.”
“Sounds good, thx.” Harry’s BS came back low reading 38. “Ok so his sugar is very low so as soon as he is a bit responsive we need him to drink juice and start eating.” Louis turned around to Zayn. “Start opening snacks since his hands won’t work well.”
“K”
“Niall, start squeezing his hands to help him come to.” While both boys were working Harry started blinking awake. Louis instantly started talking. “Hey, it’s ok Haz we are all here with you. Robin is on his way home but I need you to drink this first.” Harry stared at Louis with foggy eyes not really comprehending anything that was being said. Louis reached back to Zayn and grabbed one of the opened juice boxes and placed the straw in Harry’s mouth. “Good job Haz!” As he finished the juice box Louis could tell he was starting to become more conscious. Harry started playing and tugging on Roux’s ear and she seemed less worried. “Hey, Haz, can you talk to me?”
“Mmmmm”
“That’s a good start. How about you tell me what your puppy’s name is?”
Harry stared for a few minutes before mumbling “Roux.”
“Good job, do you think you could eat this for us?” Louis handed him some gummies and after seeing him struggle to get them in his mouth Louis just started feeding him by hand. After Harry had had about 10 gummies and the juice had started to work he became much more aware. Louis checked his sugar again and was happy to see it was 75.
Robin then walked in the door. He grunted as he sat down on the floor next to Harry and started signing and translating Harry’s answers for the boys. “
How do you feel?
”
“
Bad, tired, fuzzy?
”
“
ok, what do you need?
”
“
up, bed, hurt
”
Robin turned around to Louis. “What is his BS and what have you given him so far?”
“Post seizure it was 38, just tested and is now 75. We gave him one juice box and 2 packs of gummy bears.”
“Ok that's good, has Roux moved at all?”
Niall jumped in. “No we did not touch her and Harry has been playing with her ears.”
“Good, do the same in the future and don’t move her but I was wondering if she has made any move to get off of Harry.”
“No, she seems content to stay there.” Niall answered
“For future reference, unless there is a medical emergency happening don’t get Harry up until Roux moves to lay by his side. She currently does not feel comfortable with him moving. That could be for a few reasons like his blood pressure, sugar or impending vertigo episode.” The boys nodded along. “Also, I don’t know if Harry asked or told you about this but do any of you know sign language?” They all shook their heads. “Ok I would recommend at least one of you start to learn the basics because after a severe episode Harry often finds it hard or impossible to talk so using signs is easier.” Louis nods and makes a mental note to ask Harry for a list of common signs that he should understand.
While the conversation was happening, Harry was coming back to earth more and was starting to realize how bad his back hurt. Roux had moved to lay just over his abdomen, putting an alarming amount of pressure on his back. Harry started mumbling something. “Hot… back…meds…hmmmm?”
Robin turned around and asked “Is it your back? Same as normal or worse?”
“Worse”
“Do you want me to get Roux off your stomach or is the pressure good?”
Harry then took it upon himself to guide Roux to his side. Thankfully Roux was very eager to please because Harry’s motor skills were lacking and his commands were very jumbled. “H, do you want to get in the bed or settle on the couch?”
“bed, nap”
“Ok” Robin took charge and with the help of Louis and Niall they moved Harry onto the bed. Robin positioned a heating pad under Harry’s lower back and hip and got him heavy duty pain meds.
After Harry was settled with Roux laying next to him, everyone else relocated to the living room to have a kinda debrief. Sitting down Robin took count of the boys before him. “Wait, aren't we missing one?” The boys looked around and realized throughout all the commotion Liam was nowhere to be found.
Louis spoke up “Ya, Liam is missing, he was not there for any of that.”
Zayn spoke up next “He was in the single room last time I saw.”
Robin nodded and stood to fetch Liam.
Louis then turned to the other boys “We are going to have to protect Haz, I don’t want him being insecure because Liam is a dick.” Both boys silently nodded as Robin and a disgruntled Liam walked into the room.
“Ok, so you guys did great! Louis, if you're willing to take on the responsibility I would like for you to be added to the button alert system incase of an emergency.” Louis nodded “Great! Also because of your background in knowing some of this stuff I think it would be wise for Louis to be in charge of these medical situations until someone more qualified comes along.”
“That's fine, that is basically what we did today.”
“Yes, I was very happy over the phone that you took charge. Just to have a clear plan for everyone, when Roux alerts first priority is to get Harry to the ground especially if she barks. Next is remove any dangers around, chairs, tables and Roux’s handle. Then you need to collect the supplies. Have the BS kit, snack and rescue meds on the stand by. Start timing when the convulsions start. If he convulses for more than 5 minutes, someone most likely Louis will have to give him his rescue meds. I don’t know that everyone will want to do that since the meds go up his bum but it could be the difference between him recov–”
“Woah, woah, woah.” Liam cut Robin off mid sentence, “I did not sign up to help at all, why am I hearing about all of this? If it was up to me he would not be in the band at all.”
Robin rolled his eyes and sighed “Liam I understand you don’t want to hear this but at some point or another you will be in a situation where you will have to help. Moving into the x-factor houses means that there is going to be a lot going on and having one of his own band members being ableist is not going to work. As of right now you seem to be the only one that has an issue and if I remember you are one of the oldest so you're just going to have to suck it up and act like an adult. Now since you don’t want to help you don’t have to but at the very least if Roux starts alerting or Harry says he does not feel well you need to get someone that is willing to help.”
Liam rolled his eyes and mumbled “whatever”
Louis also rolled his eyes and turned back to Robin “I’ll smack some sense into him later, but let's continue with talking. If he calms before the 5 minute emergency timer what should we do?”
“Once the convulsions stop, allow Roux to get on his chest. He can be easily thrown into a panic attack without her due to medical trauma. Next step is to take his blood sugar as I said over the phone he almost always goes low after seizures. I normally talk him through all of that so if he does start to come to he is not startled. OH, another thing is if this happens in public get people to give him space. If paramedics are called, help advocate for him that he needs space. If they are badgering him with questions as he is coming up it will send him into a panic attack or flashback. Once he comes to more treat his blood sugar as needed. One thing to note with Harry is his low blood sugars are really stubborn so you don't have to worry about giving him too much food. As for him responding, as you saw I generally ask what he needs. He will sometimes respond verbally and other times respond in sign. I would recommend you sit down with him and talk over some basic signs he could use after a seizure. Wait to move him until Roux lays by his side as I said earlier. Feel free to always call me or Anne if you need help and if you are ever unsure just call an ambulance or the show's medics.”
Harry blinked back to conscience and groaned as his back started spasming. He tried to reach over and turn back on his heating pad but was having too much trouble getting his hands to work. He patted around the bed and woke up Roux. “Go get help”
Roux jumped into action and trotted towards the living room. Harry could hear commotion from the hallway as Louis was dragged into the room by the sleeve of his shirt. “Oi, I’m going, you don’t need to drag me.” Louis chuckled as stumbled into the bedroom. “Hey, Haz how you doing?”
“Kinda shit to be honest, I have to go to the bathroom yet can hardly move due to my back being fucked.” Harry answered slower than usual, clearly still feeling the after effects of the seizure.
“Ok, do you want to use your wheelchair, Roux’s harness or lean on me for support to get to the bathrooms.”
“Help me sit up first so I can see how my legs are doing.” After struggling for a few minutes and with a few choice words from Harry he was sitting on the side of the bed looking like he was close to passing out.
“Ok, what's the game plan cause this is not looking good.”
“Can you have someone grab my wheelchair and Roux’s harness? I think we are going to need all the help we can get.”
Louis nodded and yelled “Niall, Zayn”
Niall slid into the rooms again and asked “Are we going for round 2?”
Harry chuckled “Hope not but no promises. I need to get to the bathroom and my legs aren’t functioning well. Can you get my wheelchair and Roux’s harness?” Niall zipped out of the room without another word.
Niall returned with the requested items and Zayn. “Ok so the plan is to slide my bum into the wheelchair and then slide it again to the toilet. I have no use of my legs right now and if I try to pull myself over I will pass out from pain due to my back spasming so I kinda need you guys to do all the work.”
Louis stepped up again. “Ok Niall move the wheelchair over to the side of the bed. Zayn, can you get behind Harry on the bed and support him till we are ready?” Louis walked over to the bathroom while the other guys were following instructions. He turned on the bathroom light and made sure there was nothing in their way. “Ok boys so the plan is Zayn and I are going to take all of your weight by lifting you under your arms. Niall get down by Haz’s feet to help move his legs with us.” After transferring Harry to his wheelchair and then onto the toilet everyone left to give him privacy.
A few minutes later Harry called for help. The boys came into his bathroom and got him back in the wheelchair. “Ok can we get me settled onto the couch and then we can have a band meeting and/or practice.” Harry attempted to roll himself but quickly gave up due the pain radiating through his whole body. He looked up as Niall with pleading eyes. As they entered the living room, Liam was sprawled out over one of the couches. The boys got Harry settled onto the love seat and set about finding seats for themselves. Niall bolted to sit in “Roux’s chair”. Louis settled next to Harry and Zayn threw Liam’s legs off the couch and sat himself. Much to Niall's disappointment Roux refused to leave Harry’s side and settled at his feet.
They all just kinda sat there staring at each other. Zayn was the first to speak up, turning to talk to Liam radiating sass. “Soooo, Liam, are you fully settled in and unpacked? It seemed like you were busy earlier and I just wanted to check that you didn’t need help with anything.” Liam rolled his eyes and refused to answer.
Harry fully understood what Zayn was doing but did not have the energy to fight right then so he steered the conversation back to music. “Ok, so I only heard some of you guys’ auditions. What is your range and do you know how to harmonize? I personally have a versatile range and have experience harmonizing.”
Zayn jumped in “I also have a versatile rage and am able to do high harmony as I have good control over my falsetto/mix voice.”
Niall followed up “I honestly have never had to harmonize before so I’m not really sure how good I’ll be but I understand the fundamentals due to me playing the guitar.”
Louis responded “My range is strong but I rely mostly on my mix/belt so that may have some roadblocks. As for harmonies, I’m kinda with Niall, I don’t have experience.”
Liam looked around and rolled his eyes. “God this is going to be challenging.” he muttered “Ok, My range is
very
versatile and I have control over all my voices. I honestly don’t know how this will work if you guys don’t understand your own voices.”
“Dude you're one of the oldest, you've done this before and have more practice. Of course you're going to have more skill in that aspect but that does not mean you have to act like a dick. This whole time you have been the one acting childish while the rest of us are acting like adults. I have a feeling the judges wanted you to be in charge due to your age and experience but right now you have none of our respect and aren't acting like a leader at all.” the other boys nodded along with Louis’ rampage. “You need to get off your high horse. All of us matter here whether that means Harry’s health issues, Niall being young and having to grow up fast or any of the rest of us being shoved into a situation that could change our lives. If we don’t figure this out it won’t matter how well we harmonize if there is a divide from the start.”
Zayn followed up. “What is your issue with this? Is it because you wanted to make it solo and this isn’t what you signed up for so you are just taking Harry to be your scapegoat or do you want us to call up x-factor and tell them this won’t work because we have a stubborn ableist asshole as our supposed leader.”
“I’m not an ableist!”
Harry shifted in his seat. “Honestly, I don’t know what you are confused about. When we first got called together without a word being said you tried to pet Roux, then you made a determination that this, point blank, would not work due to my health issues without even trying to find a solution or asking questions. I deal with this bullshit every day from the public but I WILL NOT be a part of a band where I have to deal with it in private too. I should not have to be watching my back or worried that you will just stand there as I’m possibly dying. Do you understand how grave this is? Yes there are some medical issues that are just annoying, like my migraines and balance, but my blood sugars and seizures could kill me in a blink of an eye. Yes, Roux helps but if you mess with her while she is working it is seriously a life or death situation.” Harry looked around at all the boys to see the listening intently. Liam looked to have finally seen some of his wrong doings but Harry was not done drilling it in. “Niall is sitting in Roux’s chair right now, I'm sure he would love for her to come over but she is concerned about me and won’t leave my side. Do you see how he just accepted it and is letting Roux work? Right now I am in a vulnerable state. I often don’t feel my blood sugars changing but due to the sheer amount of pain I’m in right now there is almost a 0% chance I would be able to manage to catch the symptoms early enough. If I was in this amount of pain before my accident, I would be in the A&E but this is just my life at this point.”
Harry paused and collected his thoughts trying to figure out a way for them to understand. “Have any of you heard of the spoon theory?” At everyone's blank stares he continued. “It basically is a way for an average person to understand the struggle someone disabled goes through every day. Say each morning you wake up with 15 spoons. These spoons represent both emotional, mental and physical energy you have for the day.
For you guys getting out of bed and ready for the day takes 1 spoon. You then go to work or do school till lunch and that takes 2 more spoons. After lunch you work more and by the time you get home you have 10 spoons for the rest of the day. You then do your homework, chores, make supper, have family dinner, that leaves you with 5 spoons by the time evening rolls around. You have the energy to go out clubbing or have a movie night with friends or just stay home and read your favorite book. You still have plenty of energy to take a shower and get settled into bed.
For me and many other disabled people the story looks very different. When I roll over in the morning I have to take my meds, check my blood sugar and then figure out if my legs are going to work that day. That already uses 1 spoon. By the time I’m done in the bathroom and dressed I’m down to 11 spoons. This pattern goes on the whole day. Between my body acting up and me spending energy trying to fix it I have no energy to spend with friends or in social settings. I’m ready to be done with the day by 2pm but I have to push through. This does not even account for me having a seizure. That plummets me right off the scale. And depending on the episode it can take days to recover. I will most likely have to use my wheelchair for days and Roux will be basically working round the clock. I have no extra spoons to deal with this bullshit. I use tools like Roux and my wheelchair to conserve spoons but it often is not enough and I’m running on fumes. I do agree with Liam to an extent this is going to be very challenging for me but I need you all to support and help me through it. Do you understand more now Liam?”
“I’m sorry for how I acted but this is just new and confusing. I guess Zayn is partially right. I took the stress of being added to a group and made you the problem.”
“That’s fine, but now that you know the real problem please stop being an ass.”
“Deal”
The boys settled into a relaxing evening of watching movies and getting to know each other better. Everyone seemed much more settled now that they got to the root of the problem.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next morning Harry woke up to a fur missile. AKA Roux alerting in the early morning hours. He rolled over half asleep and checked his sugar. It was 100 so he was even more confused. As he settled back in bed he noticed Roux was trying to drag him off the bed by his foot. “Fuck.” he muttered under his breath. Harry knew he was about to have a seizure; he could only hope it wasn’t a grand mal. Having two so close to each other was never good and could mean he was starting a cluster episode. As he got to the ground and on his side, he pressed the button in Roux’s collar and commanded “get help.”Louis smacked Roux as he was jumped on and rudely awoken. As Louis rolled over and realized Harry was not in bed it was like a bucket of ice water was dropped on his head and he sat bolt upright in bed trying to figure out what was wrong. Roux then dragged Louis over to help. “What’s up?”“I’m going to have another seizure.”“So close?”“ya, I hope it’s not a grand mal but idk”“Ok, have you pressed your button? What’s your blood sugar?”“yes, and 100”“You seem with it so what do you want to do?”“Just lay here? Idk, I feel fine so if it is a grand mal it is far off. Can you get the phone from the kitchen and see if anyone else is up?”Louis left the room and grabbed the phone as he passed the kitchen. He wandered into the living room not expecting anyone to be up due to the microwave informing him it was 6am. He saw Liam dazed looking out the window. “Hey, Harry is about to have another episode, can you help or should I wake one of the others?” Liam shook his head as he refocused and thought about Louis’ question. He nodded and followed Louis back into the bedroom.As they settled down sitting by Harry the phone rang. Louis answered and put it on speaker. “Hey, what’s up? Do I need to come over or was it an accident?”Harry responded “I pressed the button, Roux woke me up and dragged me to the floor. My blood sugar is 100 so I don’t know what is happening and I feel fine.”“Ok, do you think it could be a drop.”“maybe”“Ok, call if you need me.”Harry looked up after the phone call ended and was surprised to see Liam there. “Ok, so since Roux is not worried it most likely will not be a grand mal seizure. You guys probably have not noticed but I have multiple absence seizures each day and also what are called drop seizures. This set up means it most likely will be a drop seizure. Roux does not alert to absence seizures unless I’m in a dangerous area but her pulling be to the ground signals drop. If I’m right I will go limp but will still be able to hear and see. Please keep track of the blood sugar or possible vertigo episode after as I’m confused on why she pulled me off the bed.”“Ok, what do you need now?”“A distraction …”“Ok, well Robin mentioned that you use signs often after bad episodes. Do you want to teach me some?”“Let’s do that later when everyone is up. We could talk about the plan for Roux when we are performing.”Liam spoke up. “Aren’t you going to bring her on stage like last time?”“No I don’t think that would be best because if they want us to do the traditional boy band thing we will be dancing and moving around. I don’t want her to get hurt.”“That makes sense, what were your ideas?”“I was thinking of putting her in a down stay right off stage and having her come to me when we line up to get the results. She will also have her e-collar on so I can call her if I’m having an issue. But generally she would be away from me for like 2 minutes while we perform so I don’t think it will be a problem.”“Ok, would she have all your medical stuff in her vest in case something happened.”“Ya … that…was…the…idea.”Just as Harry slumped, Roux walked over and layed next to him. Louis then turned to Liam. “I’m going to time it, but that sounds like a good idea. I don’t know about you but I can’t dance to save my life.”“Neither can I, we may end up being the first boy band that does not dance.”“We’ll have to see.”2 minutes later Harry groaned and looked around. “Next time, reposition my head, my neck is going to be in a knot for the next month.” Harry moaned dramatically.“Maybe next time I’ll hang you upside down while you're defenseless, what ya think about that?” Louis teased back,“you wouldn’t”“Watch me.” Both boys rolled their eyes and chuckled.After a few minutes of silence, Roux started bouncing around. “Guess I’m good, she has deemed breakfast more important.” Harry chuckled as he sat up. Louis helped him stand and then all 3 boys moved into the kitchen.
3 hours later, Zayn and Niall stumbled into the kitchen looking for caffeine. As the zombies were struggling, Harry turned to the other boys. “Should we help or just enjoy the entertainment?”“I think we could spin it as a team building exercise to see how they work together.” Harry and Liam highfived just as the zombies turned around to glare.Niall grumbled “The team building will soon be performing first aid on you if you don't help.”Louis responded “oh. Don’t worry, we did that team building exercise already without you this morning.”Naill turned back around and started helping Zayn press all the buttons on the coffee machine. “God dammit!”“Harry how the fuck do you work this?” Harry finally decided to go over and help. He quickly got the machine working and got them both cups of coffee.As they each chugged their cups without doctoring Harry turned to the others. “Ok, where is the closest A&E, something is very wrong, maybe we should be looking for mental hospitals instead. How the fuck are they drinking that?”“I don’t know. Just ignore them till they fully wake up.” The trio that had been awake for hours continued their conversation.“What song do you guys want to try to sing together?”“I don’t really care, let's just start singing and figuring out how our voices meld together.”That’s what they did, for the rest of the day the boys sat in a circle inside and then later moved out to the fire pit to just goof off and sing together. Niall got out his guitar and they just had fun. They told stories and hung out late into the night just bonding till it was pitch dark and they all decided to head in for bed.
A few days later, Harry was outside training with Roux. After their conversation a few days earlier Harry realized that he had not used Roux’s e-collar in nearly a year. Harry was working on establishing her vibrate commands. 1 vibration was “watch me” generally followed by a hand signal. A long vibration was “come”. His hope was to have Roux on a “place stay” off stage on her blanket and use her e-collar to get her on stage if he felt bad. He was planning on having her e-collar remote plus an emergency button on him. In the past few days, he had been brushing up on her off leash skills as it would be easier to use a short traffic leash or no leash in situations where she would have to stay out of the way. He also sent a list to his mom of all the extra things he thought of that he would need to pack to go to the judges houses and then hopefully the live shows.Louis was sitting on the outside chairs snacking while watching Harry and Roux work. “Hey can you get Niall and come over here for a sec to help.” Louis got up, went inside to grab Niall and they both met Harry in the middle of the yard. “I need to work with Roux and get her to listen to you guys too. Roux will generally listen to you guys in an emergency situation but we need to go over more subtle hand signals and alerts for when we are in front of cameras.” They spent the next hour going over Roux’s basic hand signals and what her alerts look like and mean.
The boys packed up early the next morning in preparation for going home for a few days before meeting again to take the train to Simon's house.Harry packed up all his stuff from the bungalow and started looking through the stuff his mom had set aside to bring with him. He recounted 2 months worth of medical supplies, snacks and other necessities. He made sure to pack food and toys for Roux as well as her “pack mule” vest. After talking with the boys, they decided that it would be best to have Roux carry all his medical stuff if he was not using his wheelchair instead of using a backpack. He also made sure to have Roux grooming supplies and loads of treats. Harry did not often carry treats on him anymore but after looking into the x-factor more, if they made it past the judges house they would have to deal with many large crowds. Roux was good at adapting but she never had to deal with that situation before. He also packed her collar that had a large service dog label for when she was not vested and her short traffic leash. He grabbed her blanket, shoes, and ear protection and decided he was as ready as he would ever be.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next morning Harry woke up early and started getting ready for the day. After getting dressed, taking his meds and feeding himself and Roux he put his last items in his carry on and started vesting up Roux. Since they would be spending hours on a train and then catching a flight he vested Roux up in her light gear. She had her basic harness for brace and forward momentum work but he opted to not have her wear a cape or saddle bags and just used a labeled collar instead. He also grabbed Roux’s hands free leash and her traffic lead with safety release to help free up his hands for luggage. Anne helped Harry load up all his luggage into the car and they headed to the train station.
Louis met them outside the station. The plan was for Louis and Harry to travel together for safety. Harry got out of the car and reciprocated the offered hug from Louis “How you feeling today?”
“Fine, tired from waking up early but other than that good.”
Louis turned to help Anne get Harry and Roux’s luggage from the car. “How are you today Anne?”
“I’m doing good, love. Have to agree with H about being tired due to waking up early.”
“Thankfully I was able to sleep on the train over here so I’m ok for now but I’m sure I’ll crash once we get settled down.”
“Sounds like a plan. Please make sure you're taking care of my boy.” Over the week between the bungalow and going to the judges house, Louis and Anne had had many phone calls about taking care of Harry and paperwork about his illnesses. Louis had been given access to his medical documents in case of an emergency and was given temporary co-guardianship over Harry. This was for a few reasons, but the main being advocating. Both Harry and Anne were worried he would be looked over by producers of the show because of the accommodations he was requesting. With Louis being one of his guardians he would be allowed to be present during all meetings and help advocate if Harry was unable to. He also had been recommended for online Sign Language courses in addition to more information about seizures and service dog laws. During the down week, Louis, Niall and Zayn were also added to his alert buttons.
“Mum, stop, we’re fine. Roux will watch out and Louis will call if there are any problems.” After a few more minutes of Harry being mortified with his mother’s goodbye, the trio walked into the train station.
Harry led the group to the counter to get his tickets and make sure he and Louis were assigned disabled seating.
“Hello, how can I help you today?” The assistant at the help desk asked as they walked up.
“Hi, I’m here to pick up our tickets. The names are Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.”
“Ok I see them here in my system, let me print them out for you.”
“Ok, thank you. I just want to confirm they are both in the disabled section.”
“Are you both disabled?” She looked confused, mostly likely because she could not see Roux or Harry’s wheelchair from her side of the counter.“No, um, Louis here is helping me but we need to be together due to the nature of my disability and we need the extra leg room from the disabled seating due to my service dog.”
“No, problem. Will you need any help getting on or off the train?”
Harry looked at his luggage to make an assessment. “If you could just have someone ready to help store my wheelchair, I think that is it.” Harry looked to Louis for confirmation and got a nod in return.
“Ok, sounds good! I’ll have someone meet you at door 3 to help you get settled.”
Louis grabbed the offered tickets. “Thanks, love”
Harry readjusted his backpack and picked up his duffle, ready to get to the train platform. “H, why don’t we put all the bags on the wheelchair so I can push it?”
Harry put all his stuff onto the wheelchair and grabbed Roux’s forward momentum handle. “Follow Lou.”
“Great, what platform are we on?” Louis called over his shoulder.“Platform 1, I think.”
“Do you want to get something to eat or just wait by the platform?”
“I’d rather wait down there. I haven't been on a train with her in quite some time so I just want to make sure she is ok with the noise and stuff. I also have tons of snacks in my backpack in case we get hungry.”“Sounds good. Do you know where the elevators are?”“Nope, we should probably just ask someone.”Louis led the group over to a nearby security officer. “Excuse me, where would we find the elevator to get to Platform 1?”The officer eyed both boys and gave an exasperated look at Roux and the wheelchair as he pointed to their right. “It’s over there down the hall. You know dogs aren't allowed, right.”“It’s my service dog, so she’s allowed everywhere with me.” Harry responded monotone and sounding rehersed. Louis rolled his eyes at the man and continued walking in the direction the officer pointed. Harry gave Roux the ‘follow’ hand signal and lagged behind Louis in the crowd getting lost as Roux struggled to work her way through. The security officer was following Harry trying to get more information and overall being ableist. Between trying to see Louis, dealing with the crowd, the officer badgering him and Roux looking for guidance, Harry saw no option other than to press his emergency button clipped to the belt loop on the jeans. He knew logically it would scare the daylights out of his mom when she saw the alert but he saw no other way to get Louis’ attention.
Ahead Louis instantly stopped, his phone was giving off the new tone he set up to alert to an emergency. He whipped around and spotted Harry lost in the middle of the crowd looking panicked. He quickly made his way back. “H, what’s up?” Louis tried to call over the crowd. As he got closer he noticed that Harry was zoned out and the officer was nearly in his face demanding answers to his questions. Roux had placed herself between Harry and the officer and it was clear to Louis that Harry was leaning heavily on her brace handle. “Yo, back up!”
The officer looked up and responded. “The idget won’t answer my questions. Why does he have the damn animal?”“That’s none of your business. Right now you are nearly causing a medical episode, so it is in your best interest to step away before you seriously get hurt.” Louis may have forgotten to state that he would be the one hurting the man because the officer stepped away from Harry quickly looking alarmed. Louis walked up to Harry and placed a hand on his bicep. “Haz, can you look at me?” As Harry was still zoned out, Louis turned to Roux. “Roux, check.” Roux looked up and then turned to stiff Harry. After a few seconds she just turned to stare at Louis. Louis came to the conclusion that Harry was dissociating or was having an absence seizure. Given the build up and stress of the crowd, losing Louis and the officer, Louis was banking on dissociating. He quickly jumped in action and moved the bags from Harry’s wheelchair and with the help of Roux he settled Harry into the chair. After situating the bags, carrying as much as he could and hanging the rest off the back of the wheelchair, he instructed Roux to heel and led the group to a secluded corner.
When they came to a stop, Roux jumped up on Harry's lap and started licking his face and applying deep pressure therapy. Louis looked at his phone to try and gauge how long till the train was leaving. He saw missed calls from Anne and texts from the boys. Realizing that everyone got that alert and were wondering what was happening he quickly sent out a group test.
MEDICAL ALERT CHAT
Lou: Just a dissociating episode due to the crowds and an arsehole of a copper that I didn't realize was happening so H pressed the button to get my attention. We are now in a quiet place waiting for him to come to.
Mum: K, let Roux task she is the best for groundingMum: What do you mean about the cop?Lou: getting in H face asking why he had a dog ect. Overall creating a sceneMum: ok, ill call the station to help you get to the platform, don’t miss your train <3
Louis put his phone down and knelt down next to Harry. “Hazz, can you look at me?” Harry looked up but it was clear that he was still very out of it and not focused. Just to check his basis Louis decided to check Harry’s blood sugar. Louis grabbed Harry’s backpack and started looking through it for Harry’s BG kit. After finding it and getting it set up, he gently grabbed one of Harry’s hands. “H, I’m going to check your blood sugar. You’re going to feel a prick love.” Even with the warning Harry clearly was distressed by the pain and started whimpering. “It’s over Hazz, focus on petting Roux.” After Louis got the blood in the meter and wiped his finger, Harry used both hands and started tugging on Roux’s ears. “Be gentle love.” Louis looked down when the bg machine beeped. After confirming H’s blood sugar was in rage sitting at 110, Louis looked up at another security guard waiting patiently a few paces away from the boys. “Can I help you?” Louis asked with a bit of trademark Tomlinson snark.“Hello, I’m Tom. I was wondering if you guys would like help getting to your platform.” Tom kept a respectable distance away from the group huddled together.Louis stood up as he packed away the bg kit and balanced the backpack on the handle of the wheelchair. “That would be great, I don’t exactly know where we are going.”Tom stepped forward “Could I see you tickets to figure out what platform and door you need to get to?” Louis handed over the tickets and set to work on getting Harry to let go of Roux so that she could walk beside the wheelchair.
“Harry, let go of Roux. She needs to walk beside us to get to the train.” Harry immediately protested and started squeezing Roux much too tight. “Harry, Roux will be right next to you and you can keep your hand on her harness the whole time.” Harry seemed to contemplate this solution and move both his hands to Roux’s harness. Louis decided that was workable and commanded Roux “Off, Heel” She moved to the side pulling Harry with her as she got herself into a heel position. Louis grabbed a regular 6ft leash from Roux’s bag and clipped it to her collar. He slowly moved Harry’s hands from the harness to the leash explaining along the way “Here you can still hold her but this will be safer.” Louis turned to Tom. “Ok, we should be good now.”“Great, the elevator is this way. Would you like me to take any of your bags?”Louis leaned down and grabbed a duffle and handed it over. “That would be great. The last thing we need is to overbalance and topple.”“No problem. Will you need the wheelchair with you on the train or will it be stored.”Once they were all in the elevator and going to the correct floor Louis turned to answer. “We should be ok getting on the train but it really depends on how with it he is. He is pretty shut down with the altercation earlier.”“Oh, what happened if you don’t mind me asking?”“One of the other security officers was up in his face demanding to know why he had a dog. Between that and being stuck in the middle of a crowd he panicked.”“I’m sorry to hear that, I will check the cameras later with my boss and track down who it was.”Louis sighed “Thanks.”
They all got off the elevator and filed down the corridors to the platform where the train was waiting. There was a train attendant waiting for them. “Hello, gents my name is William and I will assist from here. Will you need a ramp to load the wheelchair or are you able to walk to the seat.”
Louis instantly liked William. He talked directly to Harry even though right now an answer would be unlikely. It was nice for Harry to be treated as a human being. Harry had no response so Louis crouched down in front of the wheelchair. He decided to try and sign and speak at the same time in case H’s ears were ringing. He tapped H’s thigh to get his attention. “ Harry, can you walk or do you want to use your wheelchair? ” Harry actually perked up and responded.
“ I can walk ”“ Ok, Wait while we get the bags. ” Louis turned to William. “Ok, we are going to walk onto the train and store his wheelchair. If you could help get our bags on that would be great.”“No problem, are there any specific bags you need access to?”Louis handed him the bags as he spoke. “Here are both our carry-ons.” Louis handed him H’s medical bag and Louis’ backpack. Louis refocused on Harry trying to figure out the best course of action. After asking Roux again to ‘check’ and getting the all clear, he made sure the brakes were on the wheelchair and moved to crouch in front again. “ Do you need help? How are you feeling? ” Harry responded much too quickly for Louis to understand. “ You gotta slow down, I’m not good at this. ”
Harry slowed down and Louis was able to pick up the key words. “ Slow … dizzy. ”“ Ok, I’m going to have Roux stand in front of you to help brace and I’m going to support you from behind. ” Harry looked confused as Louis butchered the signs and was playing some hybrid form of charades by the end. Louis decided to just move forward with his plan. He had Roux stand in front of the wheelchair and ‘brace’. He moved Harry’s hands to her brace handle and helped boost Harry from behind. As Harry got his balance Louis called over his shoulder. “William, which direction are our seats?”“To the right, about 4 rows down.” William stepped onto the train and stood in front of their seats.“Roux, ‘forward’” Between Louis and Roux they were able to get Harry into his seat with no issues.
After getting Harry and Roux settled, Louis checked with William and made sure the wheelchair got stored properly and the proper bags were on the seats. William then assured him that there will be another attendant to help them get to their car after they get off. Louis thanked him and then moved to sit down.
—Over the course of the first leg of the trip, Harry came to and was functioning well again. The boys goofed off for the rest of the ride, playing games, telling stories, learning more sign language. They had no more medical issues other than the occasional blood sugar adjustment but other than that they had a peaceful ride.
When they arrived in London, the whole group planned on meeting to take a flight together down to Marbella. “H, are you ok to walk or do you want to use your wheelchair?” Louis asked as the train was pulling into the station.
“I should be ok to walk with Roux.” Harry responded as he worked on putting Roux’s harness back on. Harry turned to pack up his backpack and get ready to leave.
Both boys stayed in their seats when the train came to a stop, waiting for an attendant to help them. A few minutes later a young man walked up to their seats. “Hello, I’m Cory and I'm going to help you guys get off. If you are ok getting off the train yourself, I’ll grab the wheelchair from storage and meet you there.Louis nodded “Sounds like a plan.”Harry and Louis collected all their bags and Harry grabbed Roux’s harness and they made their way to the platform. Cory was waiting there with the wheelchair. “Harry, put your bags on the chair and I’ll push them.” Harry did as told.“Ok, I’ll help you guys navigate out of here. Are you getting a pickup? Or meeting somewhere?”“We are meeting across the way at the coffee shop. We have friends meeting us there from other trains.” Louis responded.Since they would be moving through crowds again, Harry checked that he had Roux’s e-collar and emergency button on his belt loop. He also switched to her traffic lead in case she had to go get Lou in an emergency. Her traffic lead was able to be attached to a belt loop or a waist loop by a strong magnet. She would be able to pull away if needed in an emergency but was still ‘attached’ to Harry. After he checked everything he looked up to Louis and nodded. He was able to talk but was semi-verbal due to the daunting crowds in front of him.
Cory led the way to the elevators with Louis talking to him and Roux following Louis. Harry kinda zoned and just let Roux lead him.
Harry came back to himself when he smelled coffee as they walked into the coffee shop and saw Zayn nursing a cup of tea while sitting on a couch in the corner. Louis led their little group over and sat down on an arm chair across from Zayn. Roux led Harry over to the couch and he plopped down. “Hey, how ya doing? Heard there was a bit of trouble this morning.” Zayn turned to talk to Harry. They boys had all been warned via text to make sure they had Harry’s attention before taking today since he was a bit spacy.
“I’m ok, just stressful to travel, especially with Roux.” Harry responded slowly.Louis perked up at that. “H, would you like me to take Roux outside to go potty. It’s been quite a few hours.”“That would be great!” Harry leaned over to remove Roux’s brace handle since they would be camping at the coffee shop for about an hour till Liam’s train got in and then going to meet Niall at the airport.
Louis took Roux out to the bathroom and the boys got drinks to settle and relax before going through the airport. They figured out it was the first time Zayn was flying and also the first time Harry or Louis were flying without family.
—Within the next hour Liam arrived and they ordered an uber to take them all to the airport. As the app alerted them that the car was pulling up soon they all collected their luggage and moved to stand on the curb. When the car pulled up they all moved to the trunk goofing off trying to get everything to fit.
Louis moved to climb in the third row since he was the shortest. Harry, Zayn and Roux sat in the middle row and Liam sat in the passenger seat.
Arriving at the airport, they got all their luggage from the trunk and they somehow managed to balance an impressive amount of bags on the wheelchair. Niall met them at the entrance to the airport. The problems started when they went to check in for their flight. Louis and Liam stepped up to the counter holding everyone's paperwork to collect their tickets and check the bags.
“Hello, what can I do for you?” A middle aged man answered straight faced as if reading off a script.
“Hello, we are here to collect our tickets and check in our bags.” Louis answered, trying to charm the man.
The man just silently held out his hand. Louis and Liam exchanged a look and handed over the papers. They guy looked up after a few minutes. “Why ya need 5 tickets?”Liam pointed to the other boys sitting on a nearby bench. “They are with us.”“The whole lot gotta be up here.” The guy snapped.“Sure, one sec.” Louis walked over the other boys and explained.
When all 5 of them were standing in front of the desk the worker started going through the paperwork. “Blondie, what’s your name?”Niall frowned but answered. “Niall Horan”The worker went down the row of boys making snide remarks as he checked them in until he reached Harry. Muttering under his breath “here we go” He turned to Harry and started talking very slowly and loud over announcing every syllable. “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”Harry looked unbothered which made the other boys even angrier. “Harry Styles” He responded in a regular tone albeit a bit slow.“OK, WHAT DO YOU HAVE THE DOG FOR?”Louis stepped up “Ok, this is ridiculous, Harry hears just fine so knock it off, also you can’t ask that.” Louis and Liam repositioned slightly in front of Harry.
Since the heart to heart at the bungalow, Liam had become a more protective older brother. He still did not want to deal with the medical issues but seeing Harry being mistreated was unacceptable in his mind. Since Liam was the unofficial front man of the band they decided in public if there was a medical emergency, Louis would tend to Harry and Liam would deal with the public or the people working on the show.
Harry turned to Louis giving him a look to settle down which just made Lou more pissed that Harry was ok being treated like that. “My name is Harry Styles and I just need to make sure I have bulk seating to have space for my dog and Louis needs to sit with me as he is my legal guardian and is responsible for me during medical episodes.” Harry announces slowly so as to eliminate confusion.
“Whatever, anything else I can assist you with … spoiled brat.” The worker asked, muttering that last bit.
“That will be all.” Louis responded curtly.After collecting their tickets and checking their bags and Harry’s wheelchair, the boys all moved to get into the security line.
“H, do you need help getting through here?” Louis leaned in and asked.“Possibly, it depends on how nice the person is. I have not flown with her before so I’m not sure but sometimes they make the dogs go through the metal detector ‘naked’ other times I’ve seen it where they just patt down the dog.”“Will you be able to walk without assistance through the metal detector?”“I should be ok, but you may have to help communicate because these people generally go fast and it can make me go non-verbal.” Harry shyly asked.“No problem.”The boys positioned themselves so Liam and Niall went first so they could judge the temperament of the security person and then Zayn would follow to make sure no one forgot anything. Liam and Niall got through with no issues. Niall waited near the metal detector on the other side in case the boys needed assistance.
Harry stepped up to the security guard after he had put his bag on the conveyor belt. “Sir please take all shoes and belts off yourself and gear off the dog.”“Is there any way to keep her gear on? I have trouble walking without support.” Harry muttered.
“Hurry up and do as you’ve been told, lad” The guard said bluntly.
Louis spoke up to try and help as Harry leaned against the conveyor belt to take his shoes off. “Is there any way he can leave the harness on the assistance dog? He struggles to walk without support.”“It is a security risk so he will have to manage without it.”Louis turned to Harry. “Would you like me to help get Roux’s gear off?” Harry nodded mutely.
Louis worked on taking Roux’s gear and collar off while Zayn supported Harry. Once the gear was through the metal detector, Niall called Roux through and started redressing her. Harry then walked through the metal detector without incident and was reunited with Roux.
After everyone got through and collected their carry-ons, the boys settled outside of their gate and waited to board. The flight was uneventful and next thing they knew they were landing in Spain.
–After collecting their bags, getting in a taxi and arriving at the hotel, the boys were dead. Once again Liam and Louis worked with producers to check them into their room. After getting their keys, the boys figured out they would be staying in two connecting rooms.
The next few days were spent hanging out on the beach, practicing and bonding as a new band. During rehearsals it became clear the show wanted Harry and Liam as the front men of the band. During practice they all got assigned parts with both Liam and Harry having solos and Zayn having high harmonies and echos. Louis and Niall just got backing harmonies but after an impromptu band meeting one night they decided to save that fight for a later date. Once they got to the live shows the boys felt they were much safer due to being young lads and hopefully having a large female fanbase that would vote for them.
–The day of their performance they went to the beach early in the morning
to chill as their time slot was not till 5 pm yet their call time was 1pm. Since the vast majority of the band were underage and Harry’s health issues, they had to have a chaperone with them whenever they left the hotel. Gathering up the poor women assigned to them that day the boys all donned swim costumes and went to the beach.
Once setting all their items on the beach, Louis realized that it might not be safe for Harry to get in the water. “Love, are you ok to go in or do you want to stay on the beach like yesterday?” They boys had been on the beach everyday but had yet to venture into the water as it was cold but considering their plane was tomorrow night they decided to screw it and get in.
“I’m mostly going to stay on the sand or sit where the waves are lapping.” Harry responded, clearly upset but trying to hide it. “I also don’t want Roux to get too wet.”“That makes sense, since we won’t have our phones either get Emily’s attention or have Roux bark if you need something and can’t shout.” Harry nodded.
Louis and the rest of the boys left Harry sitting on the edge of the beach and ran in the water. After a few minutes they started doing elaborate acrobatics while throwing each other and having Harry score them. On one particularly high scoring throw, Louis landed on a sea urchin. All the other boys were astounded by the sheer plethora of cuss words leaving his mouth. Emily jumped up and ran into the water to figure out what was wrong. Liam and Zayn met her half way helping Lou to the beach. After Louis got over the initial pain, it was deemed necessary to have him carted off to hospital due to his foot rapidly swelling. The other boys and Roux were basically thrown back in their hotel room and told to stay until call time.
Liam stepped up and came up with a game plan. “Ok, it’s 11:30 so we have an hour and a half until call time. Hopefully they can get Lou figured out by then. If not, we are ok. He is just on backing vocals this week, it won’t sound as good but we are ok.” Everyone was sitting on a different surface listening but worried about what would happen.
The boys lounged around in the room till 30 minutes before a car was supposed to be picking them up for ‘pre-shots’. None of the boys knew what that meant but they got ready to leave nonetheless. At that point Louis was getting discharged and would meet them at the filming location. They all got showers and got dressed in trackies. They would be styled and their hair done when they got on set. The show had asked Harry to have Roux not wear her cape so she was just in a collar and her harness. This meant that Harry had to bring a crossbody with all his emergency medical supplies and snacks.
Another chaperone for the show collected them from the room and got them all loaded up into the car. On the ride there Roux jumped in Harry’s lap seconds before he slumped forward. None of the boys were too concerned as they had somewhat gotten used to Harry having absence or drop seizures and just bouncing back. A few minutes after Harry came too, they arrived at the mansion they would be filming at for the rest of the day.
Liam got out of the van first and made sure to help Harry to solid ground and make sure he got a hand on Roux harness. Zayn and Niall were kinda surprised that he was helping so much but cropped it up to being the oldest. Their current handler, Nick, led them to a styling room within the house.“Hello, boys, my name is Rhy, and I’m going to help style you all. I’ve already got your sizes and some themed ideas already set aside for you.” A bubbly girl no older than 21 greeted them. Harry was the last one in the room and it was clear on Rhy’s face she had not been warned about the service dog that came along with their group. “Ok, um, I see those buttons on your hip. Do you need belt loops on your outfit to clip them?”Harry looked up and nodded. “Ya, I have a different system in my bag if it's not possible but it would be easiest for everyone if I could have a belt loop.”“Ok, is the dog going to be in the shots because if so I have some scarves and bandanas that could match some of the outfits.” She asked and started bouncing in place as she pictured ideas.“She is not going to be in the shot of us performing but most likely she will be in some of the others.” As Harry finished answering, Louis limped into the room.
“Hey lads, miss me?” He joked with flourish.
Niall jumped in before anyone else. “Nah, had a great nap without your loud ass in the room.” He finished by jumping at Louis for a hug so forceful that they both crashed into the door frame.
“I just got out of the hospital, let's not send me back so soon, Nialler.” Louis chuckled.Niall screeched, literally screeched. “Oh my god, oh my god, did I just get a nickname?” Niall had heart eyes as he looked at Lou like that was the best moment of his life.
The other boys and Rhy looked at each other a shook their heads.
As Louis extracted himself from Niall, Rhy started pulling different outfits off one rack and placing them on an empty rack. “Ok, so since they will have footage of you guys on the beach earlier today I was thinking of doing a beach vibe.” The boys agreed and started filtering behind the changing panels that were set in the corner of the room. As they came out they then went to a table where Rhy was setting up accessories that would match the vibe. “Harry, I have this scarf and a matching bandana if you want to coordinate with your pup.”
“That would be great.” Harry leaned over to pick up the scarf and bandana as Roux started booping his leg. He grabbed the two items and walked to a nearby wall to sit down. He pulled his crossbody over his head and grabbed his BG kit to test.
After Niall had changed he wandered over and knelt down. “You ok? Do you need anything?”“I’m good, not sure what's going on. I feel fine.” Harry responded without looking up as he waited for the meter to read his BG. It spit out 100.
Niall cocked his head to the side. “I thought that was a good number?”“It is, she is most likely pre-alerting, so my sugar will change quickly in a few minutes.” Harry preemptively pulled out snacks and his insulin pen. Thankfully both hair and makeup were in the same room so they would be staying there for quite a while.
Louis walked over and sat down against the wall on Harry’s other side. “Hey, what’s up?”“She alerted me to blood sugar but I’m in range right now so it should change soon but I don’t know if I’ll go high or low.”“When was the last time you ate?”Harry turned to Niall “Did we have lunch?” Niall shook his head. “I’m probably going low then.”They all sat there on the wall waiting for the other to finish getting dressed and picking out their accessories. After a few minutes it became clear that Harry was starting to feel unwell. Louis took it upon himself to retest Harry’s blood sugar. “Haz, I’m going to test your blood sugar. You don’t look too well.” Between Harry not responding and Roux looking increasingly anxious, Louis worked as fast as possible. The number popped up as 56. “Ok, love, you’ve gone low. Niall, can you grab a gel for me, he seems quite out of it.” As Niall started digging in Harry’s bag, Louis moved the testing kit to the side. After getting the gel, Louis opened it and maneuvered it into Harry’s mouth and squeezed a good amount of gel in his cheek. He then started massaging Harry’s throat in an attempt to get him to swallow.
“You guys need anything?” Liam asked as he finished getting dressed and walked over.
“Could you get the on site medic? He doesn’t want to swallow and we might have to use the glucagon.” Louis said. Not even looking over his shoulder as he was desperately trying to get Harry to swallow. Liam made an affirmative noise and walked away.
Zayn was the last to finish getting dressed and he walked over next asking what he could do to help.
“Could you call Anne? We will most likely have to use the shot.”Zayn walked a few steps away to call while Louis turned to Niall. “Can you test him again while I keep trying to stimulate?” Niall did as told while Louis moved on from stimulating Harry to swallow, to straight stimulating him by harshly rubbing his knuckles over Harry’s sternum. Harry twitched and started mumbling. “Harry, I need you to swallow. Can you do that? Come on.” Harry slowly did as told and started to swallow the gel in his mouth. Louis alternated between stimulating his chest and adding more gel in his mouth.
Niall sat back as he got the drop of blood and waited for the machine to test the sample. It came back 38. “Ok, we are now at 38. Do we just wait to see if the gel worked?”
Louis didn’t answer for a few moments. “Hey, here’s Anne. I kinda filled her in.” Zayn said as he placed the phone on speaker and placed it next to Louis.
“Hey, we just got him up enough to start swallowing the gel but his blood sugar has now dropped to 38.” Louis finished updating.
“Ok, and Liam is already getting medics?”“Yep.”“Ok, can one of the others grab his shot from the bag. At this point you might need it if he doesn’t respond to the gel soon.”Niall dove back in the bag to find the hard red case that stored the shot. He placed it on the floor by Zayn’s phone. Just then a large bloke poked his head in the room.
“Hey, one of yous is out here looking for the medic. Is everything ok?”“Nope, kinda having a blood sugar issue here.” Niall responded.
“Ok, is this normal?” He asked as he joined everyone on the ground.
Anne spoke up. “Hello, I’m his mother. He is type one diabetic and from what I’ve been told did not eat lunch and is now very low.”Louis jumped in to give the specifics. “Original reading of 56, was very out of it and would not swallow gel even with prompting. Re-tested and is now 38. He is swallowing the gel only with added stimulation but he is ingesting it. We have his glucagon on stand by incase we need it.”“Ok, since we seem sorta stable right now, keep feeding him gel. I’m Paul and I’m not the medic but I have extensive medical training so I’m going to stay with you guys until this is sorted. Can you go and ask catering for a sandwich or crackers? Whether we have to use the shot or not he will need a large meal once we get him back with us. Mum, is there anything else I should know?”Zayn walked away asking around for where he would find catering. “He has a traumatic brain injury from a car crash and has damage to his pancreas therefore is type one diabetic. His lows can be very stubborn. He also has epilepsy. Boys, when was his last seizure?”Niall answered since he was in the car earlier. “He had a drop seizure in the car on the ride over. He has not had a grand mal during this trip.”“How often does he have seizures?” Paul asks the group.“It is varied since it is caused by his TBI” Anne answered.
At that moment, Harry started fighting Louis’ force feeding. “Harry, you have to eat this. Come on.”
“Harry, my name is Paul and I’m here to help you feel a bit better. I’m going to check your blood sugar again but I would really like it if you kept eating while I did that.” Paul reached over and grabbed the testing kit and got to work. By the end Louis had kinda given up on feeding Harry as he had clearly started feeling better and was using that strength to fight Louis.
“Ok, his blood sugar is up to 60. Does he have carbs in his bag?” Niall reached over and handed him a granola bar and a cheese cracker pack. “Harry, would you like a granola bar or crackers?” After getting a blank stare for a few seconds, Louis leaned over and signed the question. Harry responded with a hand movement similar to crackers. His hands were clearly not quite working with his brain but he was able to get his point across.
“Crackers.” Louis translated.
“Is he deaf?”“No, but he goes non-verbal during stressful events and medical episodes.” Anne responded from the phone. “He also often finds it easier to understand signs in those situations vs. talking.”“Ok” Paul then held out the crackers for Harry to take. Once again he just got blank stares. Paul chuckled, “I’m starting to think you just don’t like me.” he said good naturedly as Louis started feeding Harry the crackers.
Just then Liam came rushing back in. “I can’t find medical. They are all idiots and won’t help me. … Who are you?” Liam realized half way through the tangent that someone was there helping. “Wait, I talked to you in the hall and you said you weren't medical. This is not some joking matter you can lie about. I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off.”Paul put his hands up in a placating manor. “Woah, I’m not medical but I have extensive training so I’m here helping out. We are doing ok right now so you can calm down a bit.”Zayn then walked past a frozen Liam with a sandwich and crips. “They didn’t have crackers so I grabbed some crisps instead. How are we doing?”“Much better, Sugar is now up to 60 and he is eating.” Paul responded.
“How is that much better?” Liam exclaimed. “That’s only 4 points higher than when we started.”“After you left he dropped even lower to 38, so yes this is better and he is responding more than when you left too.” Louis muttered.Liam slid down against the wall a few feet away clearly coming down from the adrenaline high and was confused. Zayn went over to talk to him after giving the food to Paul.
“Ok, Harry, even if you don’t like me, would you like what looks like a turkey sandwich and crisps?” He asked as he held out the plate to Harry. Harry made a very poor attempt at grabbing the plate, nearly spilling the whole thing. Louis took over feeding the sandwich to Harry bite by bite. “Mum, is he normally uncoordinated or should I be worried?”“Nope, munchkin was covered in bruises even before his injury, but even more so now.” Paul just nodded.
As Harry was eating, everyone started talking about their interviews that were coming up. A few minutes later Paul tested his blood sugar again and got a reading of 120. “Ok, y'all should be good from here. Make sure he finishes the sandwich and keeps eating throughout the day. Here is my personal cell number if you have any more issues. I am staying in the same hotel as you guys so just call if you need anything.”The boys, minus H, collectively said thanks and Niall grabbed the card and added the number to the medical group chat after checking if it was ok.
-The boys then slowly filtered through hair and makeup while Harry was getting his voice back. Throughout the whole thing Roux stayed out of the way but made sure to keep a close eye on her boy.
-The boys met up with the camera crew and did introduction shots and background videos. Since medical had not been found for Harry's blood sugar the show did not really know what happened and decided to focus on Louis getting stung by a sea urchin.
After around 2 hours of interviews and scenic shots, the boys were put in a holding area waiting for their time to perform. They warmed up together relieved that Harry was back to more or less 100%. He was still a bit shaky on his feet so he was using Roux for quite a bit of counter balance. They boys decided to change the line up a bit and put Harry in the middle of the group so he could lean on them if he needed for balance.
A few minutes later they were called forward. Harry moved Roux’s magnetic leash to the back of her harness so he was not attached to her at all. He patted himself down and checked that he had his button and the remote to Roux’s collar. They all walked out together and Roux left his bag with Roux right out of camera shot and put her in a down stay.
Same as the rest of the afternoon went, Simon asked about Louis’ run in with the sea urchin but quickly changed his target to Harry. “Harry, how has this week been away from home with all your issues?”“It has been interesting being away from home for the first time since my accident but I have a great group of lads with me and we all support each other.” Harry responded slowly yet clearly.
The boys then performed. It sounded very close to what they did in rehearsals so that was all they could ask for. Harry then called Roux over and she trotted to him carrying the bag in her mouth. He grabbed her handle and all the boys walked off screen.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
(for visual people this is kinda what I’m talking about. The rigid handle is removable for comfort (I.E. during seizure or long rest periods). The leather handle is a pull strap for forward momentum or counter balance. There would also be attachments for her cape or saddle bags.)
*All the boys have smartphones
*
*Liam’s birthday happened and he is now 18
*
*I’m American so my understanding of the British school system is lacking
*
*In this universe there are 4 weeks of live shows and then the top 3 acts go straight on a 1 month tour around England. Also I don’t know anything about the other contestants so this will be focused on the boys.*
2 months later, the boys all met up again in London. Niall and Zayn had gotten take home and online work to complete for school while they were competing in the live shows. Both Liam and Louis had already completed their A-levels and were taking a term before starting back up. Harry was still technically not doing school but had started doing some free online courses in hopes of getting the prerequisites for an A-level program. They all were starting to see the changes in their lives from their first performance. The original auditions and judges show performances were aired in the 2 weeks before they met up again and all the boys were getting recognized in their hometowns. Thankfully they were still ambiguous enough that outside of their circles and local areas no one knew who they were.
Just like last time Louis took a train over and picked up Harry before everyone met at the London train station. They got an 8 seater van this time provided by the show to take them to the complex all the contestants were staying at. Between all the luggage, Harry’s wheelchair and Roux the fit was quite tight. Everyone was told to pack for 2 months as they would not be able to go home and collect more items.
They arrived at the house and were shown their room. The handler said there would be a team meeting with the producers in 1 hour in the lounge. The complex was set up like condos where each act had separate areas. Most of the staff also lived in the complex since working hours were so long. Sadly they were all one bedroom spaces so they fit two bunk beds and one standalone twin in a small bedroom.
“Ok, Roux and I need a bottom bunk or the stand alone bed and whoever sleeps on the other bottom beds be aware that Roux might wake you up in the middle of the night.” Previously Louis and Harry had always shared a room so the other boys were not really aware that Roux would wake them up in case of an emergency.
“You should take the single just so if we have to deal with something in the middle of the night no one has to be worried about hitting their heads.” Louis stated. “I’ll take this one.” He moved over and grabbed one of the bottom bunks.
Niall looked over at the remaining lads “I’m fine taking the bottom and getting woken up by Roux, but do either of you not want the top.”
Zayn shyly spoke up. “I’m kinda afraid of heights and would like a bottom bunk if that's ok.”
“That’s why I asked, mate.” Niall was quick to respond, slapping Zayn on the back and then moving his stuff over to the bottom of the ladder that was for the bed over Louis.
Zayn moved to the other bottom bunk and Liam moved to the attached ladder.
After unpacking a bit and setting up Roux’s food/water and bed, Harry and Louis worked on setting up his alarm system. They put the button under the corner of Harry’s bed in a location that would lessen the chance of it accidentally getting hit but was still easy for both humans and pup to press. Harry then pulled up his laptop and signed in the software and made sure all the boys and Paul were connected to the system. (During the months apart they were disconnected). Louis also made sure that the medical group chat and alarm would alert through any do not disturb that he had set. Harry then took off Roux’s cape and harness she had been wearing most of the day and just left her in her collar.
They all started moving to get settled in the lounge before their scheduled meeting. Harry used the walls to steady himself while giving Roux a break. Step one was finding the lounge. No one gave them a tour of their space so they explored the whole area till they settled in the lounge. They sat down on the couch with Roux at Harry's feet waiting for the meeting to start. “Do you think they are having this meeting with everyone or just with us because of me?” Harry asked nervously.
“They might be having it with everyone but either way I would have suggested having a meeting because of you. Liam was unable to find the medic last time which was a big issue and I want Paul to be our permanent handler.” Louis was stern in his tone so Harry knew either way this meeting would have been happening.
“I don’t really remember Paul.”
“Ya, you were quite out of it.” Niall explained. “But he helped out and was very skilled when Liam was running around like a chicken with his head chopped off trying to find a medic.”
“I was not running like a chicken.”
Niall was quick to amend his earlier statement. “I believe it went something like ‘yall are idiots, I can’t find anybody, who the fuck are you?’ and then you kinda collapsed yourself.” Saying the ‘quotes’ with a horrendous out of breath impersonation of Liam. Liam just rolled his eyes and chuckled as staff walked into the room.
Two staff members walked in and sat on the couch across from the boys. An older woman spoke up first without even introducing herself. “Ok, we are here to talk about logistics. We do this with all groups but it is even more important since 3 of you are underage and one of you has extensive accommodation requirements. So we are first going to start with the generalized underage things. You three, Harry, Niall and Zayn, have turned in all your paperwork and I have been told you have brought school work with you.” All three boys nodded. “Perfect, we will have allotted time for completing the course work during your time on the show. We also have certain rules we have to follow since this is a televised show about how many hours you can work a day. We will figure out a schedule in a bit but that is something we have to keep in mind.” She closed the first folder and moved to the second. “Ok, so Harry, I don’t have a lot of paperwork from your mother about your medical issues.”
“She should have sent over the accommodation requirements.”
“Yes, I got that but I have no medical records or anything of the sort.”
“You don’t need access to my medical records for accommodations and since this show has gone behind my back before you guys are getting the bare minimum of information. I have a copy of the accommodation list with me if you need it.” Harry turned to Niall. “Can you go grab my backpack? It should be in there.”
“Oh, that won’t be necessary. I have it right here.” She was quick to interject.
“Niall please go get it. I would like us to go item by item down the list and it will be best if we both have copies so we don’t skip items.”
When Niall returned and Harry removed the papers from the backpack, he placed them on his lap and spoke up.
“(1) Roux needs to be with me at all times unless I have placed her in a safe area away from me, like performing. She should not be restrained in any way and is allowed to come to me if needed.
(2) She will be working off leash most of the time here and will be controlled by verbal commands, hand signals and her vibrate collar.
(3) Only people I have explicitly told so are able to command, handle and interact with her.
(4) I need to have my backpack with me at all times or Roux to be wearing her packs.
(5) I will be allowed to wear my emergency button and Roux’s remote at all times.
(6) If anyone on my emergency list, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik or Liam Payne, are separated from me they need to have access to their phones.
(7) Louis Tomlinson will be in charge if I am unable to communicate and has the right to make medical decisions until my mother, Anne Twist, is notified.
(8) If Roux alerts, all other events stop. I need to deal with the medical issue before proceeding.
(9) If Roux barks, my emergency button needs to be pressed and medical called if Louis Tomlinson is unavailable.
(10) I also need a shower chair to be placed in the bathroom.”
Louis looks shocked by the end of his speech. Harry leaned over and whispered. “My dad, bio-dad, is a lawyer and wanted to make sure there was no confusion.”
“Ok … Well, that is quite a list you’ve got there. We should be ok with all of those.”
“Also we as a band would like Paul to be our permanent handler. I had a medical episode before our last performance and he handled it very well and worked together with the boys to get me feeling well enough to perform the same day. Another note, during that medical episode none of the boys were able to find the medical staff. Also, are we expected to feed ourselves or is the show providing catering for all meals?” Harry added.
“What is Paul’s last name as we have a few on staff?”
Louis pulled out his phone and talked at the same time. “One second, let me pull up a picture of his business card. … Here, Paul Higgins. H-I-G-G-I-N-S. ”
After looking on his own computer the other producer tilted the screen so the lady could see. “Ok, he is part of security but I can ask him to move over and be specifically assigned to you guys. For meals, catering will have basic foods available in the kitchen of the house for breakfast and for lunch and dinner they will be served on sight.”
“Ok, I am going to need carb counts for all my meals so I can dose properly and then if a few snacks were available that would be great too. I did not take up the space in my luggage to pack large amounts of snacks but I will need them.” That was a small lie. Harry packed his more emergent foods like gels, fruit snacks and juice but decided to figure out extra crackers and granola bars there. If push came to shove he could go out and buy them.
“Ok, I will figure that out. Back to general stuff. For live shows we have a teaser that is shown before you guys perform. They generally are about 15 sec. of footage that is voiced over introducing you and the song right before you walk on stage. The filming for that will be tomorrow. Styling will have 2-3 options available. It is up to specifically Harry but also the band as a whole if Roux is in those shots. A van will be here to pick you up at 10 am tomorrow to take you to the warehouse where we do all the practice and prep work. Any questions?”
Surprisingly Liam spoke up with an accommodation idea. “If any of your staff in certain areas know sign language or have worked with service dogs in the past we would like to be put with them. It’s not a requirement but it would make communicating easier. If that is not possible, the next best would be to work with a similar group of people so we don’t have to keep repeating ourselves.” Harry cocked his head for a few seconds processing but then nodded along.
“I’ll see what I can do.” Both producers stood up and walked away.
“Ok, that went better than I thought.” Louis muttered.
After a few minutes of thinking through the conversation Harry interrupted the other boys joking conversation. “What was she talking about an introduction video?”
“I pulled up videos on my computer and the premise is simple.” Niall said as he turned his computer screen. At Harry’s confused look, Niall added more context. “You zoned for a while and we all had the same questions so I grabbed my computer and looked up past intro. videos. Here.” Harry then watched a few videos that Niall had queued.
“Ok, this seems simple. I think we should have Roux as kinda a background character since she will be with me all the time so the audience should get to know her too.”
“She’s also going to be in all the interviews and diaries that get made.”
Louis commented.
“What diaries?” Niall asked as he took back his computer to try and answer his own question.
“Oh, they did them last year where each act would have goofy diaries each week as a behind the scenes thing. Recap how they felt the performance went and get people to vote for them.” Louis supplied.
The boys decided to call it early for the night and get to bed since they would have a long day tomorrow.
–
The next morning Harry’s alarm went off at 8am. He rolled out of bed, took his meds and then stepped outside to let Roux go potty. She ran around for a few minutes playing and getting some energy out. Once she was tired and started alerting to Harry’s blood sugar, he went back inside to the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen, he saw Liam leaning against the counter with his eyes closed drinking a cup of coffee. He gave the hand signal for Roux to get his medical bag as he honestly had no idea where it was. As she trotted away, Harry started looking through the options for a good breakfast.
“There is not much else than loads of cereal and milk.” Liam muttered. Clearly still half asleep. Harry just nodded as he picked out Weetabix and grabbed the container of sugar. He placed a bowl with milk in the microwave to warm it before putting 2 bricks in with a good serving of sugar. Halfway through making breakfast Roux trotted in with his pack. Once he was settled at the kitchen table he checked his blood sugar and it read 55. Liam leaned over his shoulder to see what the result was. “Do you need me to do anything?”
“Can you bring Roux’s food here? She won’t leave to eat until my sugar is back in range and I would like her to eat soon so she is ready for the day.” Liam nodded and walked away.
While Harry and Roux were eating the rest of the boys slowly staggered into the kitchen to start getting ready for the day. “Hey, H, how ya feeling today?” Louis asked after waiting a few minutes for the caffeine to hit his system.
“I’m good. Still a bit sleepy but feeling fine.”
“Great!” Louis then turned and raised his voice a bit to talk to the whole group. “Ok, we only have one shower, so who wants to get one before we head out. We have a bit over an hour till we should be waiting by the door. And I guess we then need to figure out who generally showers in the morning vs. evening so we can set a loose schedule for the future. I generally shower at night.”
Zayn, Liam and Niall indicated that they generally shower in the morning. “I generally shower when I have the energy but my preference is the evenings.” Harry stated after everyone else had spoken.
They then split up to get ready for the car to pick them up.
–
Harry and Roux were the last ones to arrive in the front room to wait for the car. As the boys started chatting he sat down to check his blood sugar.
“Ok, are we ready for today?” Niall asked.
“Yep!” The remaining boys choirs in response.
“Just a heads up my blood sugar seems to be tracking low today so if ya guys could just keep an eye on me and make sure we don’t forget to eat.” Harry asked.
“What’s your sugar now?” Louis asked.
“100, which is fine but it should be higher after eating a sugary, high carb breakfast.”
“Ok, you have snacks with you, correct?”
“Ya, I have quite a few in my bag and a couple in Roux’s cape.” Harry decided since they were going to be out of the house for god knows how long to bring his bag and just have Roux wear her cape since it was comfier for her. The other thing is since they were going to be meeting loads of new people the cape has better signage labeling her as a service dog than the two patches that fit on her saddle bags. He also had Roux on a fully hands free set up. She was wearing her labeled 2 inch flat collar and her vibrate collar above that. The 2 foot traffic lead he was using was specially made with a magnet encased at the end of the handle. He wore the other half of the magnet attached to his belt loop. There was also a magnet attached to her brace handle for ‘storage’ when the leash was not in use so it would not be a tripping hazard. She also had her brace and forward momentum harness on like always.
The boys chatted some more as they waited for the van to pick them up again. Once they were all settled in the back, they set off for the warehouse where they would be getting photos and meeting everyone.
–
Upon getting through the gate, the boys were dropped off by the entrance. They kinda timidly walked in since no one met them and they were slightly confused on what they were supposed to be doing. They walked down a hallway that ended in a big main room. They waved at Paul as he walked over. “Hey, boys, since Harry was out of it last time, I’m Paul and I will be your handler from now on. Today we are taking intro. shots and meeting with styling to talk about possible looks for the future.” Paul then walked away and motioned for the boys to follow him. He led the group to a side room that was set up similar to a lounge but had makeup stations set up on the outskirts. All the boys settled on couches waiting for the next step. Paul excused himself to get the styling crew before walking away.
“Did you see the sign outside the door? This room is labeled for One Direction so I think this is kinda our home base.” Liam said after everyone had settled.
“Really!” Both Niall and Zayn jumped up to go look at the sign themselves. “Cool!”
“If so, I want to set up a space for Roux in here with water and her mat.” Harry said. “I also want us to figure out if everyone is coming to us or if we will have to travel to wardrobe, hair etcetera.”
“One of us will ask Paul when he gets back.” Lou responded.
Niall and Zayn bounded back into the room a few seconds later followed by Paul. “Ok, boys. Wardrobe will be here in a few minutes. Due to your group size and accommodation needs I have requested that whoever is mobile comes in here to work with you.” Answering Harry’s question without prompting. “You will still need to go to the practice rooms and photo backdrops but I think everyone else should be able to come in here. Due to most of yous being minors the show will have to notify you when cameras are rolling so as not to get private moments. Technically they are legally allowed to film Louis and Liam without asking but I have black listed you as a whole group so that should not happen but just be aware.” As he finished his spiel, the wardrobe group wheeled in 3 hanging racks of clothes for the boys to look at.
Harry made a mental note to remind the boys that he was filmed without consent already so to just be aware to take the info from Paul with a grain of salt as the film crew and directors might not respect the blacklist.
“Hello, doves, my name is Carol and I will be the main stylist working with you for your time on the show. I have two interns that will be floating around to help as needed. Their names are James and Lily.” She pointed to the two teens organizing the accessories on the makeup tables against the wall. They waved as their names were called,
“Let's first talk about what you guys want your overall image to be. Simon said that he wants you to have creative freedom but has requested that your outfits at least go together and don’t clash with one another.”
Liam was the first to speak. “We have talked about this a bit and don’t want to do the whole matching thing. We liked what we wore for the judges house and kinda wanted the same premise of everyday clothes with a few more accessories.” The other boys nodded along.
“That works. Does anyone have requests for things they like or don’t like?”
“I personally would like as many of my outfits to have belt loops as possible since I have medical buttons that need to be on me at all times.” Harry leaned to the side and showed his button and Roux’s remote. “I also think it would be cute for Roux to have a matching bandana if possible.” At Carol’s nod Niall answered next.
“I have a few sensory issues and don’t like leather in general or constrictive clothing around my crotch. Wait … that sounds bad. Ummm. Like skinny jeans are ok but some of them are really tight around your upper thighs and groin and I don’t like that.” Niall looked down blushing hoping for someone else to talk.
“That makes perfect sense. Anyone else?” Carol prompted. The other boys stayed silent so Carol just moved on. “Ok… I was thinking we could do a basic black look for the introduction shots so it would look good with whatever the theme and music was chosen for that week. These shots are going to introduce you every time you perform so they need to be a bit basic. The whole cart over by James has possible pieces for you to choose from. If you want to just have fun and try stuff on, we will help make it a bit more cohesive once you have found stuff you like. Harry, if I could have a word while the others find things to try.”
Louis turned to H and signed “
You good to talk with her.
”
“
Ya, she’s giving grandma vibes and you guys will be right here if needed.
” Harry smiled as he signed back.
The other 4 boys looked like they were mauling the clothing rack, digging through it to find clothes they liked. Carol moved from the love seat over to sit next to Harry. “Hey, love, I heard from a little birdy that you sometimes use a wheelchair. Do you have certain clothing that doesn't work when you are using a wheelchair?”
“Umm … Pants that are tight in the waist are uncomfortable after a while and then if I’m wearing a layered shirt, if it's too long it can get stuck in my wheels easier. That being said, I don’t use it very often but the stress of the show could make it more likely. Also since you guys are going to be in the room for a bit would you be ok with me letting Roux free. I want to use her heavy work mode as needed so she does not get burnt out.”
“Do what you need to with Roux. We were all warned about her and no one should be working with you guys if they are afraid of dogs. For clothing we can keep to pants similar to what Niall was talking about with a looser top to be held up by a belt that can be loosed if needed. For shirts if you would be ok changing depending on if you're in the chair or not that would be great. From experience clothing looks very different standing vs sitting so for you to look your best we should just have two different tops.” Carol answered as she was jotting down notes on her laptop.
“Perfect, I have also noticed that with shirts but have struggled with finding clothes that work.”
“Great, you can go over there to try and find clothes that you like.”
Harry leaned over to remove Roux’s gear and release her. He leaned on the couch handle to stand and then moved over to the other boys. All the boys had chosen black jeans of some sort or another. Louis chose a scooped neck basic black tee. Liam had a black tee with a zip up over it. Zayn had a similar set up with a bomber jacket instead. Niall had a ¾ length sweater that had a stretched layered neckline. Harry walked over and took the pair of jeans
and shirt that Louis handed him and moved behind the partition to change.
“H, do you want me to set up Roux’s stuff in the corner?” Niall called from the other side of the wall.
“Sure, just her pad and water bowl. Oh … you can also grab some toys from her bag too.” Harry called as he was wriggling into the jeans. “Lou, these jeans are too small.” Without getting a response another pair was tossed over the divider. As he struggled to get the too small pair back over his ankles he lost balance and landed on his bum. “Damn”
he muttered under his breath.
Harry wound up just changing on the floor, thankful that the second pair of jeans fit. After getting the new pair on he realized that he would not be able to get up on his own. “Roux, here” He called. She trotted over and positioned herself in front of him and braced once she saw him on the floor. Right before he shifted his weight on to her to stand she walked a few steps away and just faced Harry. “Roux, here, brace” She just stared for a few seconds and walked over and booped him. “Get my bag” He huffed.
As Roux trotted away, Louis called “H, you dressed?”
“Ya”
Louis then moved the partition to allow more space and figure out what was wrong. “What happened?”
“She won’t let me get up and alerted to my blood sugar.” Right then Roux trotted back over carrying Harry’s backpack in her mouth. H pulled out his blood sugar kit and tested. “I’m 65.” Lou then helped get his packet of fruit snacks open. “When are we having lunch?”
“Pauly, when are we having lunch?” Louis hollered over his shoulder.
“In about an hour, why?” He answered as he walked over to the two boys on the floor.
“His sugar is low so we are figuring out how much to give him.”
“I’m not that low so I'm trying to figure out how much to eat.”
“Ok, we should be finishing up here in about 45 minutes and then we will all move to the dining room for lunch.” Paul informed the boys.
“Ok, thanks.” Harry responded and decided that he should be good till lunch. He packed up his bag and logged everything in the app. “Lou, can you remind me to bring Roux’s other harness with me tomorrow. It will be more comfortable for her to wear in here but will still have a handle on the back to help me.” Louis nodded and after Lou helped him up they then joined everyone else at the accessory table. Zayn wound up with a scarf and Liam and Louis with some bracelets.
Seeing the necklaces and the chains sitting on the table Harry walked back over to Carol. “I forgot to mention I can’t have any necklaces or anything around my throat in case I have a seizure. Scarves are ok but anything string or metal that could twist and choke me is dangerous.”
“Sounds good. Would you be ok wearing something like this?” She held up a scarf. “I am planning outfits for your performance and this would be a great accessory for you as I can get a matching bandana for Roux.”
“Ya, that works. Thanks!”
The boys slowly reconvened on the couches for Carol to look them over and talk about the plan for their interviews and performances. “Ok, this looks good. For your performance I was thinking we can do something similar as last time but a bit more hard core. More black and leather but still street clothes. For your interviews and stuff, anything should work. We just ask that the clothing be appropriate i.e. no profanities or illegal activities on the shirts. Also we did this a bit backwards today but you will need to change back into your regular clothes for lunch and then change back for the shoot later.”
The boys all got changed and Roux got her gear back on before they all went to the dining room to eat. Harry was struggling a bit with walking and was relying quite a bit on Roux for balance. Paul led the boys over to a table with 5 place settings laid out. The boys sat down and Paul went off to the kitchen. A few minutes later he returned with the carb count for the meal. Harry pulled out his meter from his bag to check his sugar. The rest of the boys were scarfing down their food while Harry checked. In the end he calculated that the meal would equal somewhere around 4 units but since he was low earlier he dosed with only 3 in hopes of keeping his sugar on the higher end of normal.
When everyone was done eating, Paul came back over and told them to go back to their room to change for their shoot. “Paul, when can I let Roux out to the bathroom?” Harry asked.
“Umm… we should go now before the shoot because that might take a while.” Harry followed Paul outside while the other boys changed. They then all reconvened in their room and Harry got changed also. During lunch hair and makeup set up on the outskirts and the boys were each getting done up. The group then moved to a photo studio.
Upon entering, what appeared to be the assistant instantly started gushing and rushed over to say hi to Roux. All 4 boys smoothly blocked her and acted like nothing happened. Louis did speak up after a few seconds of the girl not getting the message though. “Hey, that’s a service dog love. You can’t pet her while she is working.”
At that the head photographer realized they had entered and walked over. “Catherine, can you finish setting up the lights?” As the girl sulked away he turned back to the group. “Sorry about that, I'll have a chat with her later. Moving on, for these introduction shots with groups we like to have a few sets of group pictures and then a video that shows off your personalities.” The boys were all led to line up for a dramatic 5 shot. Roux was settled just off screen with Paul standing by. Harry was thankful that Paul had automatically placed himself near Roux, especially with Catherine in the room. After taking the standstill shot, the boys decided the moving group close ups would be where Roux was included. She was kinda just bouncing around in the background as they redid the shots a few times. Since she would be more playful it was decided to take off her gear and just leave her collars on.
Post-photo shoot, the boys swung by the kitchen and picked up dinner to-go before being carted back to the condo. They all ate and Louis and Harry took turns taking a shower. Once they were settled on the couch, Harry mentioned that he was going to go to bed early since he was tired. The other boys bid him goodnight and he zombie walked to his bed and crashed for the night.
-
A few hours later while the rest of the boys were playing on a PlayStation 3 that Liam brought they heard a crash in the bedroom followed by barking. “Shit!” Lou yelled as he ran into the room. Behind him it was silently decided that only Niall would follow unless the others were needed so as to not overwhelm Harry. As he entered he saw what might have been his worst nightmare. Roux was on the bed pinning Harry as he seized, half of him was falling off the bed as he convulsed. It was clear she was trying to keep him from falling off but Louis knew that they had to get Harry to the floor before Roux or Harry got injured. He stepped on the emergency button as he grabbed Harry’s bed sheets by his legs. “Niall grab the sheet by his shoulders and we are going to slide him to the floor. Roux, off”
Once Roux moved they slid Harry to the floor. “ZAYN, GET HIS BAG. LIAM START A TIMER AND CALL PAUL!” He hollered over his shoulder making sure he was clear and concise but could be heard. Niall and Louis slid Harry more to the middle of the room so he was away from the bed legs. Zayn and Liam came in at the same time. Zayn holding Harry's medical kit from his bag and Liam carrying two phones. One had a timer running and appeared to be Zayn’s phone while the other had Paul on speaker. “On my way! What happened?” They could hear Paul running over the phone as he was staying in staff housing on the other side of the complex. “He is seizing. Roux pinned him to the bed to keep him from falling and barked. He is on the floor right now. His breathing is getting worse. We are at… “ he paused to look at the second phone. “3 minutes 30 seconds.”
“Is he choking or is his throat spasming?”
“Throat spasming I think. There is no gurgling.”
“Ok, pull out his medication, I'll be there in a jiffy. Can someone open the door?” Liam silently left to open the door as Zayn opened the pouch and pulled out his emergency medication on top of his glucose kit. A few seconds later Paull came rushing into the room. Since the space was so small Zayn moved on to his bed to get out the way and Liam stayed in the doorway.
Paul quickly assessed the situation. By the time he got there the worst of the seizure appeared to be over but Harry was still slightly convulsing and was still struggling to breathe. “Ok, Niall, blow on his face.” As Niall did that Paul looked about for the timer. “Where’s the timer?”
At some point during the peak of convulsions the timer had been kicked slightly under Harry's bed so Louis pulled it out and reported. “4 minutes, 30”
Paul made the silent executive decision to administer Harry’s emergency medication due to duration and him struggling to breathe. “Liam, call Anne to figure out if we need to go to A&E after I give this.” As Paul was putting on gloves and getting everything ready he was still giving instruction. “Louis pull down his trousers and pants.” Lou did as told and he and Niall shifted the still spasming Harry onto his side so Paul could give his medication. Paul grabbed the capsule on a gloved lubed finger and went straight in. After administering the suppository, he looked up at Liam who was holding the house phone in his hands. “Put it on speaker.”
“I just gave the meds to him, Anne. Do we need to go to the hospital now or should we wait?”
“Someone grab the pulse ox from his emergency kit and use that. If it drops below 87, call 999. If not just wait. The Dr. recommended once placing like frozen peas on his chest/throat in hopes of restarting his breathing. That being said, this does not happen often.” Zayn grabbed the kit again and handed the pulse ox to Paul. After waiting a minute for it to get an accurate reading it gave back 94.
“Ok we are at 94 right now. Liam, can you find something frozen? Louis, can you check his blood sugar?” Both boys followed what Paul had asked of them. The medication seemed to be working and Harry was slowly relaxing and his convulsions slowing. Roux then got to work licking his face and nibbling on his cheeks. “Anne, is it normal for Roux to nibble on his cheeks. I’ve never seen her do that.”
“She sometimes does that when she is worried that he is non-responsive. Let her do it unless she gets too rough but she has never gotten to that point before.”
Paul just let her do her thing and grabbed the plastic bag full of ice from Liam when he walked back in the room. He placed it on Harry’s chest over his sleep shirt. A few seconds after the ice was placed, Harry started gasping for air, taking deep breaths for the first time in minutes. Paul removed the ice and moved Harry fully into recovery position to open up his airway as much as possible. “Lou what’s his sugar?”
“190”
“Ok, gonna need help here Anne. Can you do the math? My hands are full and I don’t know enough insulin information to fix that off the top of my head.”
“When was the last time he ate?”
“Around 3 hours ago” Louis answered.
“Ok, give him 1 unit and then check it in 15 minutes. I don’t want to give him too much so we will air on the side of caution.”
During this whole conversation, once Louis got the sugar reading back he was pulling out Harry’s insulin pen and changing the needle. He then clicked the pen to 1 unit and administered it in the back of Harry's arm. They then all just sat around as Harry very slowly came back to. 15 minutes after the insulin injection Louis rechecked his blood sugar and was happy to relay the new number of 155. They collectively decided to let his sugar sit there till he was more conscious.
-
Harry’s first feeling of coming back to earth was the burning in his chest. He was thoroughly confused because he was breathing fine but moved on mentally to the next issue. His face was wet and someone was scratching his cheeks. As he moved one of his hands, someone grabbed his wrist and held it against his chest.
That was all it took.
Harry panicked. His eyes flew open just seeing white which evoked more fear as he could not see. Next thing he knew a lumpy weight was placed on his chest. He went to smack it away thankful his hands had been released. Upon making contact, he was alarmed to find the object was fluffy and soft. He started poking it and was greeted by his hands getting wet. By now his brain was slowly catching up and he realized Roux was on his chest and licking his hands. He slightly relaxed and tried to get his hearing or sight to come online next. He just laid there playing with Roux’s ears as his vision slowly cleared. He slowly focused in on Louis' eyes as he was getting signed at. Lord only knew what was being asked of him. Harry had no mental capacity to try to decipher what was going on in his surroundings and continued staring into blue eyes.
-
Harry was slowly becoming more conscious. The first sign was him starting to vocalize. Louis had moved up to his head to help ground him as he came back and was sitting right beside Roux. “Harry, can you come back to us, love?” H was grunting and groaning before his face twisted up in anger and went to smack Roux. Paul without thinking grabbed his wrist to stop him from hurting the dog. Harry panicked and started yelling with his eyes wide open yet they were clearly unseeing. Roux pushed him on his back and placed her whole body weight on his abdomen and chest and held on for the few seconds that Harry continued struggling. When Harry finally took a deep breath and started poking Roux, Louis spoke up. “Anne, he is jabbing Roux quite hard in the side. Should we move her or just let her work till he's back.”
“Let her be unless she tries to get off and H is stopping her. What happened?”
“He was coming back and was getting angry or confused since Roux was licking his face and went to smack her in the head until Paul grabbed his arm and then he exploded.”
“That makes sense. Thanks for protecting Roux but he will panic if restrained in any way. Best course is to let him make contact with her. He generally is weak and once he feel fur his brain kinda stops until he realizes that only one thing in his life has fur.”
“Ok, he's now playing with her ears so we are doing good.”
Paul then spoke up. “Anne, what side effects should we expect from the meds.”
“Umm, make him use his wheelchair tomorrow no matter how much he ‘thinks’ he can walk. His balance is going to be thrown for the rest of tomorrow, maybe even the next day. Make sure someone is with him at all times and keep tabs on his blood sugar. After a bad seizure he is too out of whack to notice how he feels, so it's easiest if someone else keeps tabs on it. Also, Paul, do you mind sleeping on the couch or something? He is most likely for rebound seizures in the next 4 hours. He will most likely be non-verbal tonight and possibly parts of tomorrow.”
“Sounds good. Was not planning on leaving meself, so no worries there. Are you ok with us moving his mattress and leaving him on the floor? Also are you ok with us leaving his sugar a bit high. I would personally feel more comfortable if we coasted on the higher end of normal till tomorrow.”
“Both sound great. Once he is awake enough and responding a bit, give Roux a break in the back so she can just shake off the stress. She is a godsend but after an episode like this she needs a few minutes of peace as Harry most of the time remembers trying to attack her and is incredibly remorseful with his cuddles.”
“Sounds good. We will call you back if we need anything but he seems settled enough.” Paul then hung up the phone.
Harry stopped petting Roux and was clearly starting to see more as his eyes were tracking around the room. Louis leaned over him to try and get him to focus. He spoke and signed at the same time. “Harry, hello, love. How you doing?” Harry was holding eye contact well but was clearly not comprehending what was going on. “Ok, should we just get his mattress down and ready for bed?”
“I think that's what we have to do. I don’t think he is going to come back enough tonight to be of any help.” Paul started packing up the medical supplies as everyone but Lou moved out of the room. By the time they were ready to move the bed to the floor Harry was humming again in the back of his throat. They grabbed the sheet that was still laying under Harry and slid him as close to Louis’ bunk as possible. They then slid the mattress down and lifted Harry onto it. While this was happening Niall took Roux outside for a break much to Harry’s displeasure. When all was said and done Harry was asleep on his side with a pillow under his head and snuggling Roux like an oversized stuffed animal. Liam had set up the couch for Paul and everyone crashed for the night.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next morning Harry woke up on the floor in the supposedly empty bedroom. He was alarmed to not have Roux by his side and was even more freaked out to see no one around. Upon realizing that his left side wasn't going to be much use he reached over and just slapped the emergency button on the floor. Liam sat bolt upright way too quickly and hit his head on the ceiling. “Fuck!” Li had just been chilling on his phone while the others were playing with Roux in the back garden. She had woken up bouncing off the walls so they took her outside to play for a bit to get some energy out. Liam then leaned over the railing and asked. “You ok?”
Harry just nodded slowly in response. He was quite spooked from when Liam shouted and was still very discombobulated. Next to make Harry stressed was Roux sprinting into the room and skidding to a stop right in front of his face. She was very loudly stiffing and prodding his whole body trying to figure out what happened. Lou slid in next. “What’s wrong?”
Harry just kinda stared at him trying to figure out what the answer was. Nothing was ‘wrong’ yet everything felt wrong at the same time. Liam answered for him before Harry could get his thoughts together. “I'm pretty sure he thought he woke up alone and panicked since he could not see me. And then I scared him even more by smacking my head and cussing when he hit the button.”
Lou crouched down and started speaking and signing at the same time. “Harry, overnight you had a really bad seizure. We had to give you your rescue medication. That is why you feel bad. We …” Louis motioned between himself and Roux “were outside playing when you pressed your button. Do you need anything?” By the end it was clear Harry was relying heavily on the sign to understand what was happening.
After quite a few minutes of Harry just staring at Lou he responded with a single sign. “
Bathroom
”
“Ok, do you think you can walk?” Harry just shook his head in response to the question. “Ok, I’ll grab your wheelchair. We have around an hour and a half till we have to leave.” Louis then walked out of the room.
Liam proceeded to climb down the ladder of the bunk bed. “Do you need to check your blood sugar?” Surprisingly Liam was learning sign language incredibly fast and was the second best of the group behind Louis.
“
Yes, I feel weird
.” Harry signed back.
“Ok, do you want to check it or would you like me to help?”
“
Help, please
.”
Liam moved to sit next to Harry on the ground. Harry was leaning against the bed frame with Roux’s head in his lap. Li grabbed his hand and got the kit set up on the mattress. He then went through the process of testing and got a result of 70. Once he had cleaned up he got Harry to focus on him and signed. “
Your sugar is 70, what would you like to eat?
” Harry kinda started back blankly so Liam got off the mattress and opened the snack bag that was kept in the corner of the room. He got a few options out and showed them to Harry. By the time Harry was eating a pack of gummies, Louis was rolling his wheelchair back into the room with Paul trailing behind. Harry tilted his head clearly confused on why Paul was there.
“
Paul came over last night and helped out during your seizure.
” Liam signed, filling in the lapses in memory. Harry just nodded in response.
Louis moved into his line of sight and started talking and signing. “Let’s get you in your wheelchair and then to the bathroom.”
“Ok” Harry gave his first verbal response of the day. Harry was then half supported and half lifted into his wheelchair.
“What do you want to wear today? Let's get all that figured out so we have only one big adventure and then you can relax again.” Harry rolled over to his suitcase and chose a basic outfit of shorts and a tee. While he was deciding Paul moved his mattress back onto the bed frame so he had more space available to roll around. Harry then rolled into the bathroom and was able to transfer himself with very little help. He then did his business and was able to dress himself and transfer back into his chair with no problems. “Ok let’s go meet everyone else in the kitchen for breakfast. Did you take your morning meds?” Instead of responding Harry just rolled over to his pill pack and took his morning concoction.
Harry then turned to Roux and signed ‘harness’. She trotted off to the living room where her harness was left last night during dinner. After she came back and was dressed for the day, Harry got his medical bag situation on the handles of his wheelchair and started rolling towards the kitchen.
Once everyone was settled eating breakfast, Paul left for his own accommodation to get ready for the day. He then came back over to meet the boys before the car came to pick them all up. Everyone then loaded up into the van and headed over to set.
-
Upon arrival Harry was helped into his wheelchair and gave Roux the hand signal to ‘go potty’. She found a nearby bush and did her business before trotting back over. Once they were all in the main room, Paul gave them a run through for the day. “Ok, so today we have music practice and then free time after lunch that is meant for you to do school. We will eat lunch here and then dinner will be delivered to your house. FYI the music practice will be filmed and they may come over to the house to film you doing school for a bit. From what I’ve been told they want some footage of at least one school session a week. There will be scheduled school time Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons. If you need more time just let us know.” After dropping all their miscellaneous stuff in their room they all headed to the practice room.
It looked very similar to a dance studio with floor length mirrors and hardwood floor. There was a grand piano sitting in one corner and chairs set up along one of the walls. They all focused on the man leaning against the piano. “Hello, gents, my names Savan and I will be your vocal coach for your time on the show. Why don’t you all introduce yourselves and tell me a bit about you. I just have the generic sheet from the show but I want to get to know the real you.”
Liam stepped up first. “My name’s Liam and I’m from Wolverhampton. I was on the show two years ago but got eliminated at the judges houses. I’m the second oldest at 18.” He then nervously looked at the other boys hoping for one of them to take over.
Louis spoke up next. “I’m Louis, I’m from Donny. I was in theatre in school and I love footy. I am the oldest at 18.”
Zayn followed in step. “I’m Zayn, I’m from Bradford. I love all things art. I’m 17.”
“Me name’s Niall. I’m from Mulligar in Ireland. I also love footy yet I’m piss poor at it. Ooo, I also love food.” After everyone stared for a few seconds Niall got the message. “Oh, I’m 16.”
“I’m Harry and this is Roux. I’m 17.” Harry kept his answer short and sweet since he did not trust this new adult who worked for the show that had gone behind his back before.
“Ok, like I said I’m Savan. I’m 30 years old and I’m really excited to work with you all. I know you met up over break so did you guys find some songs you melded together on. Today it is just going to be messing around with different songs you like as I get to learn your voices and how to meld together.”
Throughout the rest of the morning the boys just goofed off and sang whatever popped in their heads. Savan helped them start to understand harmonizing which was exciting. For judges' houses they were kinda just told to do it but Savan was taking the time to actually teach them which made it much easier for the boys to understand.
Cameras came in and out of the room but never bothered the boys.
By the time Paul came to gather them for lunch it was clear Harry was running out of energy. For the first few hours of the morning Roux slept on the other side of the room but about an hour before lunch she repositioned herself right by Harry. Not necessarily doing anything but it was clear she was sensing that Harry was slowly losing steam.
Louis had to remind Harry to check his blood sugar and then had to do the math and dose insulin for the meal as Harry was for the most part mentally checked out by that point. They finished eating and loaded back up in the car to head back to the house. Harry had a prolonged drop seizure in the car but other than that they made it home safely and
basically tucked Harry into bed.
The next few hours the other four boys worked on school. Paul had blacklisted them for cameras in the house for the day due to Harry still recovering from his seizure the night before. When he woke up a few hours later, they had dinner as a group and then Louis and Harry got showers before bed.
-
The next day's schedule was very similar to the day before but they wound up deciding on a song. After looking through the pre approved list provided from the show they choose Viva La Vida by Coldplay. Thankfully there were no cameras around that day as after choosing a song they kinda goofed off for the rest of their practice time.
-
Thursday was the day they knew they would be filmed all day. They were practicing with Savan in the morning and after lunch they had an interview then they would be filmed while doing schoolwork/hanging out at the house afterwards.
They got to practice at 9 am and were scheduled to stay there till 11. After some fun warm ups the real work began. “Ok, boys, focus up. We are going to try to figure out parts today. Tomorrow you will be on the stage doing a dry run in the afternoon so we have today and tomorrow to figure this out. There are 3 ‘verses’ or separate sections that will be sung so we need 3 soloists. Realistically this song fits really well in Liam and Niall's range so if you guys are ok with that we need to decide on one more soloist.”
Zayn spoke up first. “I would like the other solo. If I wait for future weeks as the pressure mounts I don’t think I will be brave enough to do it.”
“Ok, if everyone else is ok with that it’s decided then.”
After Savan played the final version that had been approved by the show a few times the boys were ready for a dry run through just to see what they were working with. Liam started singing with the track and it sounded good. Zayn wound up coming in early for his part and Liam naturally set him straight by helping him sing. Niall nailed his part next. Then for the chorus they all harmonized, or at least attempted to.
“Ok, that was not half bad. We need to work on the harmonies and then Zayn’s timing but other than that you guys are pretty set to go.”
The rest of the morning they worked diligently on figuring out the problem areas.
-
After lunch they sat down on a couch for their interviews. Louis, Harry, and Niall sat on the couch while Zayn and Liam sat on the floor at their feet. Roux was in a sit stay off camera, she was going to walk in frame for introductions but then go settle by Paul for the rest of the interview. Harry had taken her harness off since they would be in this room for quite some time. The boys had decided it would be funny if Roux introduced herself but using text bubbles like in comic stories. After getting production to agree they were set for the interview to begin.
“Ok boys, introduce yourselves with your name, age and where you're from.” The producer on the other side of the camera prompted.
“I’m Louis, I’m 18 and I’m from Doncaster.”
“I’m Harry and I’m 17 and I’m from Cheshire.”
“I’m Niall and I’m 16 from Mulligar in Ireland.”
“I’m Liam, I’m 18 and I’m from Wolverhampton.”
“I’m Zayn and I’m 17 and I’m from Bradford.”
After everyone was done speaking Harry called Roux over with a hand signal. Once she was in front of him he asked “Roux, find Paul.” She looked directly at Paul as he was standing right behind the camera. She trotted over and dragged Paul back to Harry by the hand. Harry leaned over and asked the camera man. “Did that work for you?” He responded with a thumbs up.
Once Roux was settled back off screen, the interview continued. They were asked about being put together and group bonding, about their feelings about getting through to the live shows and how practice was going. Harry knew at some point his health would come up but he was kinda just waiting for it to happen.
Roux created a great segway when while Zayn was talking about the timing issues she walked over to Harry and got in his lap. Zayn and Liam just scooched a bit further apart, not disturbed by her presence. At that point they all were able to recognize an oncoming drop seizure. Once Zayn finished his thought the producer changed topics.
“I see Roux has made an impromptu entrance.”
Harry was starting to space so Louis took over. “Yes, she could smell that Harry is about to have a seizure and came over to help.”
“If he’s about to have a seizure why is he not on the ground?”
Before Louis felt comfortable answering the question he had to get one thing straight. “If afterwards Harry is uncomfortable you are going to cut it right after my first answer or the whole segment together, ok?” Once he got a nod of approval he moved on to answer the question. “There are many types of seizures and this is looking to be a drop seizure where he will lose all muscle tone for a few seconds up to two minutes. Right now he is in a pre-ictal or pre-seizure stage so he is quite out of it but not fully in a seizure.” Right after he finished talking the seizure started.
“Do you do anything for a seizure like this?”
“Not really, Roux always gives everyone time to prepare so we just make sure he doesn’t fall.”
“How is she able to give warning?”
Louis ignored her and turned to Paul and the boys. “What was his blood sugar at lunch?”
“He was 110 before and we dosed on the lower end of what was recommended.” While answering Paul was getting Harry’s glucose kit out of his medical bag and passing it to Louis. While Louis worked on checking Harry’s blood sugar as he was coming back to, Liam took up answering the producer’s question.
“Roux is able to smell the chemical changes that happen when Harry’s blood sugar is out of range and when a seizure is incoming. She has separate alerts and behaviors which tells us what type of medical episode is happening.”
“What do those alerts look like?”
Since Louis had made sure this would be cut if needed, Liam saw this as a teaching opportunity. “You just saw what she does for drop seizures. For blood sugar she will boop or push Harry with her nose to let him know something is wrong. After she alerts for blood sugar it is up to Harry and the people around him to figure out what is wrong and fix it. For absence seizure, she does nothing unless Harry is in a potentially dangerous situation. For grand mal seizure, the big ones, she shepherds Harry to a safe area and takes him to the ground. If there is no one else around or if the seizure is really bad she will start barking to get the attention of bystanders.”
By this point Harry was fully awake and looking a bit distressed. Louis got his attention and started signing. “
Do you want to stay here and finish or do you want to be done with this?
”
“
Stay, give me a minute to ground.
”
Louis then turned to the producer. “We are going to take a 5 minute break then we will be back.” She nodded and motioned for the cameras to cut. Louis then spoke quieter but loud enough for all the boys to hear. “Ok, Harry wants to take a minute to ground himself then we will see where we are standing. His sugar is fine sitting at 124. Roux is not worried so I think we should be good medically in a few minutes but we have to see if he wants to stay or cut the whole thing short.” Everyone nodded in agreement and chilled on their phones until Harry started the conversation back up.
“Ok, I’m back.”
Louis pocketed his phone. “Ok, what would you like to do? Could you hear us talking during that?”
“Ya, umm can we ask to just keep in the first part. I would like to be the one to explain the rest at a later date.”
“That's fine, love. Are you ready to get back into this? Do you want Roux to stay or go over to Paul?”
“I’m ready to restart. Is it ok if we switch seats and she lays by my feet?”
Louis instantly stood up and switched seats with Harry putting him on the end. Zayn and Liam scooched closer to Niall and Roux settled sitting between Harry’s legs. He was clearly still nervous and was playing with her ears.
A few minutes later the producer walked back into the room. “Ok, boys, are we good to continue?”
Louis responded for the group as he often did. “Ya, if we could cut at that first line that would be great.”
“No, problem. Harry, do you want to talk about it or do we just want to ignore it for today?”
“Let's ignore it for now. When I’m feeling 100% we can sit down to have a full chat about stuff.”
The interview finished without any more interruptions and the boys were then loaded up in the van to go back to the house.
-
Once home they had about 2 hours till the cameras arrived. They were told by the producers to keep some schoolwork undone so they could film that for a bit before just filming the boys goofing off and chilling. Harry decided to take a nap before the cameras showed up.
Niall came in about 15 minutes before the cameramen were scheduled to arrive. “Harry, time to get up mate.” Niall didn’t want to spook Harry by touching him so he tried to get Roux to do his dirty work. “Roux, get him.” She just stared back. “You're no help. Harry wake up.” He said louder. After no response, he wound up rubbing Harry's shoulder in hopes of waking him up calmly. He was surprised that it actually worked. Harry started slowly blinking and eventually focused on Niall's face. “We have around 15 minutes till the cameras show up.” Harry nodded and made his way to sit up.
A few minutes later, Harry joined the rest of the boys and sat on a couch in the living room. He had grabbed his laptop from the bedroom and was getting set up on the couch when Zayn walked into the room. “Hey, Haz, did you have a good nap?”
“Ya, where are ya planning on going to school?”
“I was going to set up here if that’s ok?” Zayn said as he pulled out his backpack from behind the couch. Harry just nodded in response. “Have you checked your blood sugar since you woke up?”
“No, I should probably do that before I get settled down.” Harry then got up and went searching for the bag he took to the studio earlier. Once he found it he checked his blood sugar and it was 78. He decided to grab a granola bag and crack on with some work.
The camera crew was late so the boys just settled down in various locations around to get some schoolwork done so they could hang out and play video games later.
A little after an hour since they were scheduled to arrive, the camera crew showed up with producers in tow. The boys were not warned about producers showing up but Louis opened the door and the rest of the boys continued their schoolwork. Louis made to move back to the kitchen where he was doing applications for both a-levels and jobs. The producer that originally came over for the accommodation talk stopped him. “Hey, I saw that clip from earlier and you and the other one did a great job explaining what was going on. We are planning on running in before you guys perform.”
“The only reason I did not force the cameras off is because the producer conducting the interview said it was up to Harry if that clip got shown. He DOES NOT consent to it being shown past my first answer.”
“Well you don’t speak for him and I don’t see him here objecting.”
“First of all I kinda do speak for him since I’m his legal guardian.” Her face dropped ever so slightly at that news. “Also he is not here since you stopped me and pulled me aside. But don’t worry, I'll go grab him now.” Louis turned on his heels and marched into the living room dragging Niall where he was also set up in the kitchen with him. He left the producer and the camera crew in the entry while he updated the boys on the new development.
“Hey, so the camera crew is here but we have a slight problem. The producer from day one that did the accommodation talk is here again. She apparently saw the full clip from earlier and has stated they are going to show the whole thing on Saturday.”
“Wait, we were very clear to cut the clip after you answered the first question.” Liam interjected.
“Speaking to the choir. But her rationale is that she has not heard Harry say that just us. The cameras were cut when we were talking with the producer. She also seemed surprised that I’m your legal guardian.”
“Ok? Do you just want me to tell her the same thing then?” Harry asked. He was slightly confused on what they were supposed to do. The show had shown that they don’t care and will play whatever and honestly of all the clips, the one they were talking about was perfectly fine.
“Ya, that is kinda all we can do. In the future we will just make sure the cameras are cut so this can’t pop up later.”
“Ok” Harry then switched to sign so they weren't overheard. “
I don’t really care if they show the clip from earlier today. And you guys explained it well but I still think we should try and stand our ground.
” After repeating it a few times all the boys understood and got up to talk to the producer. He was going to try and use the kill them with kindness method. He walked right up to the producer with Roux by his side. She was ‘off duty’ but had sensed the rising tension and had decided to stick with her boy for support. “Hello, I don’t believe I caught your name the first time.” After waiting a few awkward seconds for her to respond he moved right on after it was clear she was not going to answer. “I heard you had some questions about the medical episode I had earlier that was filmed. I do not consent for any of it to be shown after Louis’ first answer where he states why Roux walked into frame. I will definitely sit down at a later date if we make it further into the competition to talk about my journey with my medical issues and Roux but I want that to happen at a scheduled date so I can make sure everything gets said that I would like to share and nothing more”
“Whatever, the camera crew is here to get video of you all doing school work so it would be great if you could get back to that.”
The boys did their school work and then just hung out the rest of the day. The camera crew stayed for around 3 hours.
-
The next morning they were all loaded up into the van to be dropped off at the stage for a dry run. Their slot for stage work was from 10-12, but they had to arrive at 9 to talk some things through beforehand. Savan met them there with a choreographer who was named John.
“Hello, boys, how we doing today?”
“Good.” They all choired together.
“Great! This is John and he is a choreographer here with the show and he will be helping with staging and making you guys look great on stage.”
The boys were then ushered into a practice room to get set up with mics and practice a bit before their stage time. Once their time slot arrived for stage time they were moved over. That was where the first problem popped up, there were stairs on the stage.
Savan kept talking and explaining the staging and the overall plan for their performance. “Ok, those walls split to the back of the stage and you will start there. The plan is for you all to then walk down the stage after Liam sings the first part. Harry, are you going to be ok getting down the stairs?”
“It would be best if I could grab hold of one of them for balance but other than that I should be ok.”
“Ok, can you all go line up Niall, Louis, Liam, Harry then Zayn.” The boys did as told with Zayn providing support to Harry. “Ok, the walls are going to split and you guys will walk forward and stand at the top while Liam signs his section. Then we will reorder and get down the stairs. Zayn, you stay on the top there and reposition to the center since you are singing next. Liam and Louis are going to walk down first to the outside and then Niall and Harry will follow. We are going to try to time it in a way where Harry can inconspicuously use Liam for support.” After trying a few times, the boys figured out their staging and got handed microphones to see how the reverb of the stage would sound.
Once practice was finished, they got lunch and headed back to the house. A few hours later Paul came over and brought a vlog camera for them to film their first video diary. “Ok, boys, are you good?”
“Yep, thanks Paul. We should be good. We will call you if anything comes up.” Liam responded as Harry and Niall were setting up the camera in the living room.
“The car will be over to pick you up at 10am tomorrow. Please go to bed early because tomorrow will be a very long day so you will need your rest.”
Everyone gathered on the couch. This time all squeezing together. They filmed their video diary for the week and went to bed for the night.
-
Sadly waking up the day of their first live performance it was clear that it was going to be a challenging day for Harry. He had been woken up 3 times overnight with blood sugar issues and had already had multiple drop seizures that morning. The boys and Roux all worked together to get everyone out of the door on time and into the van. During the car ride over, a car cut off the van and the driver had to slam on the brakes which sent Harry into a flashback. Needless to say, by the time the van got to the stadium Harry was ready for a nap.
Paul had been updated via text about the situation and ushered the band into their dressing room when they arrived. “Ok, I heard we’ve had a rough morning. How are we doing right now?”
Harry was zoned out on the couch with Roux fully in his lap providing deep pressure therapy. He was still quite shaken up from the car and still felt poorly too. Roux started booping his shoulder as that was the location she could reach from his lap. “Can someone help me check my sugar?” He mumbled.
Louis came over and sat next to Harry on the couch. “I got ya. What’s the matter, love?” He reached over and grabbed Harry limp left hand and started getting to work checking his blood sugar. Harry did not respond to the question but once Louis got the reading back it started to make sense. “Lads, did anyone see if he took insulin for breakfast? His sugar is 350.”
“I did not even think to check since he always does the insulin by himself.” Niall mumbled as everyone else shook their heads.
Louis just nodded as he pulled out Harry's insulin pen from one of Roux’s saddle bags and dosed 6 units into Harry's upper arm. “Harry, your sugar is high love so we are going to give that about 15 minutes to work and see if we can make you feel better.” As Louis was tracking that in the app, the wardrobe department walked into the room.
“Hey, lads.” Carol greeted them again. “We have a few outfits set aside for each of you. If you would just come over one at a time and we can try some stuff on and get accessories situated that would be great.”
Liam went over first, followed by Niall then Zayn. By the time they were done Paul was sitting with Harry so that Louis could go try on outfits. Harry was starting to feel better as his sugar dropped but had another drop seizure while sitting on the couch. “Harry would you be ok, if I call your mum?” Harry just nodded to Paul’s question in lieu of a verbal response. Paul pulled out his phone and dialled Anne.
“Hey, Paul, is everything ok?”
“Kinda, Harry is having an increased amount of drop seizures this morning and I wanted to see if there was anything we could do.”
“Not really. You could try ice again on his chest to reset his vagus nerve but other than that nothing. If he wounds up having a grand mal I would give the rescue medication straight away since he has had increased seizure activity all day.”
“Ok, thanks Anne. I’ll call back if anything else happens.” Paul hung up and then turned to Harry. “Harry, your mom said we could try to put ice on your chest again to reset your vagus nerve but that is kinda a hail mary. Other than that she said if you start to have a grand mal use your rescue medication right away instead of waiting.”
Harry just nodded in response.
“I’m also going to have someone head back to the house to pick up your wheelchair in case you need it later. Is there anything else you need?”
At Harry’s silence, Louis spoke up. “H, do you have more insulin in your bag? Your pen is running low.” Harry pulled 2 other insulin pens from Roux’s saddle bags and showed them to Louis. “Ok, do you want to try the ice or would you like to wait a bit?” At Harry’s nod, Paul went to get ice from the kitchen. “H, can we help in any other way?”
“I don’t really know.”
“Ok, we’ll wait for Paul to come back with the ice. Can I check your blood sugar again?” Harry just gave his hand over to Louis. After getting a result of 200 and tracking the result in the app he updated Harry loud enough for everyone to hear. “Your sugar is coming down good. You're back at 200 so you should start feeling better soon.”
-
After Paul came back with the ice, they put it on Harry's sternum. It seemed to help slightly but not as much as any of them wanted. Harry picked out his outfit and by that point it was time for their only dress rehearsal before their performance that night.
-
Savan met them on stage with John and they set the boys up with mics and explained the intro timing once again. By then Harry was feeling better but Roux was clearly still on high alert, so everyone was on edge. “Harry, how we feeling about stairs today?”
“Ok, for now. Just need to make sure that I’m able to grab Liam on the way down. I should be good once we get down a level. Oh, and since today has been rough Roux is going to be coming on stage when we are done singing. I want her away from me for as short of a time as possible.”
They then ran the full song twice and the intro another 2 times to work on Liam's entry as it was a bit hard to hear the music from behind the curtain.
-
At 9pm they were backstage in the wings waiting for their cue. Paul and Roux were settled a few feet away with Paul holding her leash to keep her safe but under strict instructions to not stop her if she tried to get to Harry. Thankfully a nap during their afternoon break seemed to help Harry feel even better and they were all pumped up on adrenaline ready to perform live for the first time together.
“Ok, let’s do this thing.” Louis whisper yelled as they huddled together after being given their 30 second warning. “H, pinch us or call Roux on if you have an issue. Other than that, let's have some fun!”
Harry did a final pat down to make sure he had his emergency button and Roux wireless remote on his belt loops. After confirming they were there, he followed the boys to their marks behind the curtain and took a deep breath. It was show time.
The boys could hear the band intro they filmed a few days ago being played and then the music started. As the curtain opened and they realized they could see nothing of the crowd due to the stage lights, they fell into their own little world and performed their hearts out. Harry was able to grab Liam's shoulder on the way down the stairs and Zayn hit his entrance perfectly. During the bridge there were some slight timing issues that they all felt due to them having trouble hearing the music but they got back on track and continued on. In the end they all lined up together on center stage awaiting the judge’s cretics. Harry hit Roux’s vibrate button and she came trotting out on stage and stood next to Harry.
Throughout the whole judges commentary Harry tried to pay attention but was having trouble hearing what they were saying. He refocused from zoning out to Niall tapping his shoulder and signing. “
They are asking about your health and Roux. Can you hear/understand them?
”
Harry just shook his head in response to the question and moved on to answer the supposed question from the judges. “Sorry, I’m having a bit of trouble understanding ya. But I am doing ok, struggling a bit today but still got out here and did it. Roux’s also doing good and she is adjusting well to this busy environment.”
Simon asked a follow up question that Harry did not catch in the slightest so he turned to the boys for someone to sign the question back to him. Liam was the translator this time. “
He’s asking about the episode you had during the interview.
”
“Oh, ya had a slight medical episode during that interview but we stopped for a few minutes and then kept going.”
After a few more comments were made to the band as a whole, they walked off stage.